


Whispers in the Dark

by shadow_oblivion



Category: Five Nights at Freddy's
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood and Violence, Fredbear and the Puppet conspire, Gen, Hearing Voices, Keeping Promises, Mix of ic and ooc, No Escape, Psychological Trauma, Reap what you sow, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, last part at an old location, night guard gives no fucks and will throw hands, night guard wants a raise, original four and golden freddy are ready, revenge is a dish best served dead, springtrap is aware but can't always fight the suit's programming, takes place mainly at Fazbear's Fright, william is dramatic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2020-03-08
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:15:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 29,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21897265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadow_oblivion/pseuds/shadow_oblivion
Summary: When one avoided a dilapidated and very unnerving animatronic rabbit, it wasn’t because one realized there was a dead guy in it who wanted to have a chat.  The avoidance certainly had nothing to do with the voices of children that couldn’t be seen. Perhaps keeping a safe distance came from the fact that the animatronic rabbit offered an all too sentient stare.Be a night guard for a horror attraction, they said.  It'd be easy, they said.  Nothing can hurt you because it isn't real.Tell that to the broken and missing memories just out of reach, the whispering of unseen children, and the raspy voice of an animatronic rabbit as it drew ever closer to the office.(March 8th-still restructuring some things, will post draft chapters when mood to edit is not there).
Comments: 18
Kudos: 55





	1. A New Gig

**Author's Note:**

> This will be the only note for this fic until the end, so it's a bit longer. Bear with me, here.
> 
> I have finally caved after at least a year of seriously thinking about writing something in this fandom. I've wanted to write something for FNAF for longer than that, but could never fully land on what exactly that was going to be. I've finally come to a decision and wrote it out, and now, I'm going to start posting the fic. Even if the initial scenario has probably been beat to death over and over again, I'd still like to give my own spin on it, and if others enjoy it, that's great.
> 
> As an FYI, another reason I put off writing for FNAF is that I have stayed on the fringes of the fandom for the longest time. It was mainly because I don't enjoy the idea of getting into arguments about the characters and which ones I tend to gravitate to. I like villains such as William Afton, even if I don't approve of what they have done in the story's canon, as I find villains interesting characters to write about and explore. That being said, nothing is going to go well for the villain of this story. He hasn't really escaped like he believes he has.
> 
> The night guard of this fic will be in 1st POV, and William/Springtrap will be in 3rd person. I am alternating between them with each chapter. The chapter length will vary depending on the editing (And the rating of this fic will go up when appropriate).

My first actual night spent at Fazbear's Fright made me seriously reconsider my agreement to work there in the first place.

It was a shithole, and a dangerous one, at that. It was nothing compared to the time I’d spent there training only the week before.

The wiring was more faulty, even if the ventilation was as crappy as ever.

There were more dangerous props for sure.

With the state this building was in, I wouldn't be surprised if the walls all caved in and dropped the roof on top of me. Was it too late to call up my boss and tell him that I had changed my mind after the initial training?

Probably.

I _had_ been rather desperate for a job, and the only reason I was here now was because I received a letter from an old friend, though now, I suppose, he was my boss. It wasn't like I had anything better to do with my time, and I really did want something to distract me from the nightmares. The unease and panic that welled within me even nearly a month after I had a harrowing miss with what could have been a fatal traffic accident. 

I closed my eyes, trying to not dwell on what could have been, if that other vehicle had hit me head on.

The fact that I had been nearly hit outside of a closed off Freddy’s location was rather ironic, considering where my new job was.

But even if this place I now worked in wasn’t actually a Freddy Fazbear's Pizza I was still grateful for that letter. While an email would have been faster, the letter from my old friend was enough of a push to give me something else to think about other than what could have been a messy demise.

A grudging agreement to work the early morning hours at a still-mostly empty building was reached over the phone with my new ‘boss’.

As I got a real good look inside the building for the first time after its redecoration, I wasn’t entirely certain what to think. It had more spooky props and tacky ones than last time, and they all oddly fit the horror the vibe my boss was going for. If I had know in advance that this was what I was myself getting in to, I may have backed out. It really wouldn't help my mind in the least to be sitting in a such a dark place with barely functional equipment, and yet..

And yet...

This job was exactly what I needed right now.

A distraction.

Besides, I was most definitely stuck here, at least for the agreed upon initial time before this place opened. By then, I would have a better handle on whether I wanted to go through the same thing another week, but with more people inside of the building.

I gave the security office I was currently seated in a nervous once over, as if expecting something to leap out at me even though I knew better. The quiet was expected, given how spacious this place was, and the lack of visitors. At least, it was silent, until the monitors were turned on or the ventilation alarm went off.

The screens were a new addition but surely they had to be a joke.

I half listened to the recording that my boss had left me, talking about me getting used to the new set up. I tapped a button to bring up the monitors, and scrolled through the cameras within the building. The screens truly were terrible. I could barely see anything through the static that flickered across them. A brow raised over the fact that I could scroll through another set of cameras that were within the vents. 

Why were those there?

And why...

I tapped another button, and I let out a 'huh' over the fact that I had somehow blocked off one of the vents.

Why in the world would I have to block off a vent? 

What was even the point?

Yet another thing to put on the list of questions I had for my boss about this place.

My first night was uneventful, apart from the ventilation system crapping out once or twice. It was reset easily enough with the use of another monitor and set of buttons, but the ventilation failing so easily left me feeling even more certain that this was going to be a bad idea. And not just because this place was shitty and not feeling very scary right now. The bad feeling I currently experienced was because if tonight was any indication of what was to come, I was going to be so damned bored for the rest of the week.

_Time to go._

I held still for a moment. I could have sworn someone had just spoken to me, but when I looked around, there was nowhere for anyone to have said a peep for me to hear. Not without seeing someone standing in or just outside the office. My cell phone was on vibrate, and the phone within the building itself had been silent after I had listened to that message from my boss.

_Take care._

There it was again.

A whisper that I could just barely make out.

I gave my head a firm shake and slapped my cheeks lightly.

It didn’t help, as the whispering continued on.

_Don't push yourself._

Sleep.

I needed to get some sleep if I were beginning to imagine voices. And so long as the nightmares stayed at bay, I would be able to catch a few hours uninterrupted.

I left without hearing anything more. But the moment I returned to my small apartment that just so happened to be located near Fazbear's Fright, I knew I was going to be in for a struggle. I noticed that sleep came to me less and less after the incident on the road, and sleepless nights had been the norm for me on and off this past month.

With the state I was in because of that? I was only able to catch a few hours here and there, and this morning was no different. 

So, it was unsurprising that I only managed to doze off for a few hours. When I was unable to go back to sleep, I returned to Fazbear’s Fright around 10 AM.

It wasn't like I had anything better to do, and scoping the place out during the day gave me a sense of purpose. Being plagued with nightmares and a scattered memory that didn't seem to be getting any better made me want to find something to do.

Even go into work early.

At this point, I was afraid to ask for help, because it was a struggle to even remember who I was. I had lost my ID and hadn’t bothered getting a new one and yet, my boss still gave me the job.

I had so many questions, but no focus to grasp on to them long enough to ask.

Why?

Why was it so hard to remember now, after that almost brush with death?

I sucked in a breath and let it out shakily. Now I _definitely_ needed to drag my attention and focus on something else before I began to think too deeply about what could have been, and the loss of so much of my memory.

Luckily, or unluckily, Fazbear's Fright did have something new, and quite alarming, for me to fixate on, dashing away the darkness and unease in my mind.

There was an animatronic in the corner of a room that I did not remember seeing when I had been in this building hours earlier.

I gave the animatronic a nervous once over, taking in its beaten-up, rather moldy-looking body, before continuing on to my office. I was puzzled by the dilapidated thing that now occupied the building with me, until I checked my email. There was only one new unread in the inbox and surprise, surprise, it was from my boss. I scanned the email without much interest, until it clicked what my boss was so excited about. Something about him and some of the other guys finding 'a real one' and how 'it should be in there somewhere.' I must have just missed my boss, then, because he wasn't there any longer. 

Guess those questions would have to wait.

If I could even remember them.

At the very least, I had seen the surprise sooner rather than later, because holy shit, I would have not taken the sight of a supposedly ‘real’ animatronic well. Especially if I was even more sleep deprived than I was now, and most certainly was going to be later that night. I went out of the office with a low groan and checked on the animatronic again to confirm that I'd seen it.

Yup.

Still there, and incredibly unsettling.

I proceeded to cross my arms to silently judge the unmoving thing. 

It remained slumped on its robotic ass.

“Damn, you have definitely seen better days.” I declared after a few minutes had gone by. I had no respect whatsoever for this falling apart, disgusting-looking animatronic rabbit. It was moldy too, as I thought before.

Who the hell would bring something so dirty and unsanitary into the building?

My boss, apparently.

Not that the building itself was overly safe either, nor were many of the other props within it, including that vintage steel fan on the desk in the office.

No, I did not touch it.

I was tempted to, but I didn't want shredded fingers in addition to the nightmares.

I went back to silently staring at the animatronic, and made a disgusted sound. I was not going to come back tonight to a green decaying rabbit suit that could spore me to death if I accidentally took in too deep a breath near it. 

So, I decided to do something about that with the time I had before my shift.

I warily turned my back on the animatronic to go locate a supply closet in this building. I was bound and determined to give the fur of the animatronic rabbit a good scrub to clean it as best as I could. If there were any cleaning supplies. What I found in a small closet was a hospital mask and gloves for me to wear, and a scrub brush, as well as a small bucket of water from a sink to scrub the hell out of that moldy old thing.

Guess I would make do with what I had. 

I grumbled to myself over the way my boss was being so dumb as I made my way back to the animatronic. Why had he been so excited for a piece of trash like this? Was it even going to be functional, or was it just going to sit there as it was, obviously busted? It was a health violation, for sure, as it was now. No one was going to go near this thing if it looked so disgusting and ugly. 

Scrubbing the damned fur took forever, but it was paying off slowly but surely. By the time I was satisfied, having shoved the rabbit forward to get at its back, there was only a hint of mold. Even if the green was still around yet faded, beneath it was the color of golden fur. I frowned at the missing patches of fake fur, and the disturbing sight that lie beneath.

Were those...organs? 

Bones?

Ugh.

Did my boss _have_ to add those in? No one was going to go anywhere near this thing as it was to see something like that.

If they were smart.

I wasn’t being smart, for now, determined as I was to give the animatronic a semblance of cleanliness. I didn’t do too bad a job, seeing as I really did want to get this thing looking half-decent. I didn't stare at the ankles long enough to wonder what was wrapped around them.

I honestly didn't want to know.

"You, my friend, look like hell." I muttered, as I went to discard the water and otherwise clean up the mess I'd made on the floor beneath the animatronic. Staring at the rabbit, and then a watch, I decided I had more than enough time to do a quick job patch job. I was going to do my best to cover up the horror-show that my boss had apparently decided was a stellar idea to shove into the animatronic.

I went to what I recalled was supposed to be the temporary storage room, and located varying sized patches and colors of golden faux fur. Further inspection allowed me to find a large needle and thread. I wasn't much for sewing, because I had a terrible eye for detail, but I was going to try anyway. I marched right up to the animatronic rabbit, and began the arduous task of covering up the disturbing sight of what almost looked to be organs and entrails in the chest area and the waist. 

It was a slow patch job, as I repeatedly stabbed myself with the needle. I could not find any gold thread, only red, and it gave the suit a rather unnerving look, like it was bleeding.

It worked.

Sort of, considering this place was supposed to be a horror attraction.

I went after the eyes next, taking a break from sewing to fix the eyelids as much as I could without breaking anything. I then carefully wiped the eyes clean, revealing green irises and a black pupil, with what appeared to be a...camera, or something...behind the eyes. 

No way.

Could the pupils of the animatronic contract with some mechanism, depending on the lighting?

Giving my head a shake, as I did not know enough about machines to guess or dare to tamper with anything more past cleaning, I moved away from the animatronic eyes.

I took another brief break from doing my patch job on the animatronic. But before too long, I returned to make use of even more golden faux fur around the ankles, again avoiding seeing what was wrapped around the metal. I dug out some off color green feet from the back to cover the metal ones, and the animatronic's seated posture made it a lot easier to pull the feet over the metal ones. I began to wind down my work on the rabbit, for now, as I sewed the fur of the ankle to the new patch of fur around the ankles, and hiding whatever was wrapped around beneath the newly sewn faux fur.

"You are going to be a work in progress." I grumbled as I fixed the arm up with some more patches, hiding the wiring that was poking out. I carefully maneuvered the suit to check the back, and patched up another few spots, before letting the animatronic rabbit settle back against the wall.

“Well, it’s a start, even if you still look like hell and seem as if you may come to life at any second.” I gave the tall animatronic rabbit a quick once over, checking my handiwork, before I reached out and gave one of the newly furred shoulders a light slap. “At least I won’t be breathing in as much mold and mildew when I pass by your creepy ass later tonight.”

Naturally, the now more golden-colored animatronic didn’t respond.

I stretched my arms up and over my head, before dropping them back to my sides and letting out a very long, drawn out sigh. I was tired and sore after all that scrubbing I’d given the very worn and dirty fur of the animatronic, along with the shoddy patch job of varying golden faux fur.

“Wonder which one you were.” I mumbled aloud, giving the rabbit a long stare. The fur all over looked like it may have originally been golden beneath the moldy green, but that still didn’t give me much to go on. The fact that I’d nearly made it golden again, apart from the ears, didn’t really tell me much. Maybe I would do some research before I came back for my actual shift. I may as well bother to learn a bit more than I did before showing up to the building yesterday.

And before, during my training.

“Why does it feel like you’re actually watching me?” I muttered, voice pitched low as if I believed the animatronic might hear me otherwise. It was a silly thought, because even if it could have moved before, there was no way it would bow. Not after so much neglect. This rabbit would not be able to even lift a finger, even with a lot of TLC.

But despite being unmoving, the animatronic was still freaky and disquieting. In this lighting, I could almost believe that the animatronic rabbit was staring up at me through its cleared-up eyes.

I was being ridiculous.

It wasn’t like the animatronic was actually a living being.

But the idea that it could appear to look at me was too much for me right now, so I turned away.

There was no way in hell an animatronic in such terrible condition would be fully functional in time for it to be an attraction for Fazebear Frights’ opening. 

It was with a heavy heart that I knew, almost instinctively, that I would be forced to wear a onesie with an animal head to scare people. But it wasn’t a very fun thought, and I wasn’t very keen on the thought of being punched in the face. Not for just standing there with a mask over my head and having done nothing wrong.

Wait…

Where had that thought come from?

There was no time I could ever recall wearing any kind of costume. Not that I could be certain with my jumbled memory.

And then I heard it again.

The whispers of the voices that were not my own. It was like before but unlike the last time, the whispers caused a brief sensation of vertigo. The sensation caused me to reach out to brace myself with a hand against a wall.

_You promised._

_Please remember._

_We want to be free._

_We’ll help you…_

_…so you can help us._

I gave an involuntary shudder, uncertain over whether or not I had imagined those voices, despite how…familiar they sounded to me. But I couldn’t place those voices, not right now, and I suddenly felt the strong need to go home and actually try to get some sleep while I still could. 

It wouldn’t do any good to have blurry eyes for the shift later that night. Or to imagine oddly familiar voices speaking so quietly to me, when I was alone.

While I was very doubtful over the idea of anyone breaking in to this place to make out in the dark, I wanted to be damn sure there weren’t any such incidents. I needed the money from this job, even though there was a nagging insistence at the back of my head that I _didn’t_ actually need any cash.

Not anymore, and especially not after I was done with this gig.

With that cheerfully morbid thought, as I had no idea why I wouldn’t use that money, decided that I _did_ need sleep. I didn’t want to contemplate dark shit in this place, as I might scare myself over nothing. And as I found out from my first night in this place, my eyes and ears could play tricks on me.

If I had witnessed the way the rabbit animatronic’s eyes actually shifted to the side to track me as I left the dark, gloomy building. I may have said ‘fuck it’ to the cash and never showed my face again. Not that I had a choice in not coming back, but at the time, I believed I had a say in my employment, and when I thought enough was enough.

What a joke.

And yet everything was hunky-dory as far as I was aware. Nothing would be amiss until later, when I would finally realize that something was very wrong with my memories.

The important ones.

And the time they started to come back to me it would be far too late to do anything.

But right now, before all of that misfortune made its way back to me, I chose to focus on my job. I really hoped that it would help to tether me to reality and make it so the focus would not be on the nightmares.

Less than a week before opening, and there really wasn't anything to worry about. All I had to do was watch to over the place and maybe repair the exteriors of the animatronic rabbit some more.

Should be simple enough.

How very wrong I was.


	2. Sinister Awareness

Life and death were so closely entwined. On one hand, life could last for what seemed like an eternity, but alternately, that same life could end in the most painful way imaginable.

He was keenly aware of the latter.

William remembered the telltale sound of metal snapping, the damp of the room triggering the spring locks from his haste to get into the suit.

Dead.

He should have been dead, and yet there he was, in the same darkened room he had expired inside of.

There would be no escape for William from a second spring lock failure. The first time it had happened to him, William had been lucky that not all of the spring locks had been triggered. Equally lucky was the fact that Henry happened to have been around to painstakingly wind back each piece of metal that had pierced his flesh.

The second time it happened, all of the spring locks had failed, and William had no one to help him get out of Spring Bonnie’s suit. His flesh had been completely run through with metal and plastic, and he’d been left to die.

Alone.

Even now, William’s body was rotting away as he remained crumpled in a corner, while Spring Bonnie’s exterior broke down around him.

William was positive that he had had these same thoughts before, but it was hard to keep track of things. At times, he could look at his surroundings and what little was there. Other times, William felt that he may have dreamed of the past. Of what he had done, and may have continued to do, had he not been spring locked to death in a costume.

Dead, but not gone.

Unless, of course, William had gone to hell. But would hell really be spent in a damp, boarded off room where he was eternally trapped within the Spring Bonnie suit? It seemed unlikely, especially considering how aware he still was most of the time. But seeing as it was always the same place, and William knew that he had drawn his last breath, and breathed no longer, it didn’t seem as though he had been allowed to move on.

It was intriguing, yet incredibly frustrating, being unable to even move or know how much time had gone by.

Today, something new happened.

Today, the room was not as quiet as William was used to it being. No, the silence had finally been broken after so long, as a thumping sound came from a short distance away.

Visitors?

Ignorant, or aware of this room’s purpose?

The eyes of the animatronic rabbit briefly flickered on, and fixed on the wooden boards. Someone was speaking just outside, and yet William could do nothing but sit there and wait. Spring Bonnie was dormant, as if some programming had been keyed into it, to prevent its movement in the dark room. 

William forced the glow to become brighter, able to manipulate some mechanics of the suit. The dead man did not think too deeply over how that was even possible, as he was more concerned with his unexpected visitors. The darkness had lessened this time around, and changed the way William had become accustomed to seeing his surroundings when he bothered to open his eyes.

In a sense.

Williwm didn’t have any actual eyeballs any longer. He hadn’t for what seemed like a long time, but the world was still there before his eyes. Just animatronic ones, and what William assumed was some glowing that came from within his own skull. Or perhaps it was just reflected from the suit itself, to give off a mockery of a gaze within empty sockets.

Sometimes the idea of such a sight unnerved him greatly.

It would never not hurt William’s mind to think of how he could possibly still function. He wasn’t even entirely sure what he owed his survival to, if it could even be called that. If anything, William tended to allow the animatronic suit he was within to put him in a kind of animated, powered-off state.

Light suddenly flooded his prison.

William Afton was many things, but he wasn’t about to complain about some foolish visitors finding him. Perhaps he would be able to get the suit to function if it was in some light and-me coming into the sealed off room, and getting far too excited over seeing an animatronic. 

“Holy shit! _Look_ at that!”

Had William been able to, he would have cringed over the piercingly loud voice. Additionally, Spring Bonnie’s eats may have drooped to indicate the volume being too loud.

”What animatronic is this?” Another man edged closer to William, staring at Spring Bonnie with what appeared to be awe.

William’s narrow, sunken chest puffed up a little with pride within the suit. Someone being impressed with his and Henry’s hard work would never not be well-taken.

“Dunno. Looks like it might have been a rabbit at some point.”

William’s posture deflated at that, a little flash of irritation trickling in. How could someone not instantly recognize Spring Bonnie, with the suits’ golden fur?

“You sure? It’s hard to tell under all of that...uh...is that mold? How long has this been here?”

Mold?

William supposed that would explain why the recognition wasn’t so easy. But just how bad was the mold that the men in the room couldn’t tell the color of Spring Bonnie’s exterior?

“Do you actually want to take that with you? That animatronic looks like it’ll far apart if we try to move it.”

William dimmed Spring Bonnie’s eyes as the men came closer, so as to not draw unnecessary attention to himself apart from being something new to these men. If William wanted the chance to get out of this place when he was unable to move on his own, William needed to pretend that he really was an animatronic.

Not a dead man trapped inside one.

The mold must have masked the scent of death, because there was no way a dead body wouldn’t...smell.

”It does look in pretty rough shape, but the place opens in less than a week. This is better than nothing.”

”If you say so, man. It’s your choice, but if I were you, I’d leave this guy deteriorating I didn’t realize the room would be so damp.”

William bristled within the suit, his own hand twitching uselessly within Spring Bonnie. Alway...he always forgot that his hand was speared through with metal that held it in place within Spring Bonnie’s hand. William clenched his own jaw. If only he could move...if only he had made a serious attempt to override Spring Bonnie’s programming.

”You got some gloves, man? I am not touching this moldy rabbit without them.”

”Got some in the van. I don’t want to think how bad this is gonna be for my lungs. Look how green this animatronic is. Is that the mold or the color it was before?”

Green?

William knew for damn sure that Spring Bonnie was golden. How long had he been locked away that the suit had turned green? Had it really been that damp in this room?

”Not sure. Let’s go get those gloves and get this thing in the van. We can come back and see if anything else is salvageable.”

Footsteps retreated until they were nothing but a faint echo.

William set about attempting to override Spring Bonnie’s programming but he could t even make a dent in all of the code before the men were back, and there were more people than before.

There was a cart, presumably with which to move Spring Bonnie.

None of the men appeared thrilled by the idea of getting any closer to the molding animatronic.

It was amusing to William to see this uncertainty, because to someone who had nothing to stare at but the dark, this was the most activity that had happened in a long time. It really was a shame that William was unable to get the animatronic to move. At most, he could manage a finger-twitch, which no one in the room noticed as two of the braver men stepped forward. 

When the men maneuvered the animatronic up and off the dirty floor, William was given an inkling to just how poorly Spring Bonnie had fared.

The head of the animatronic lolled to the side, momentarily giving the men a scare, before they resumed struggling to move the surprisingly heavy, bulky suit. But the weight should have given someone more familiar with the animatronic a pause, because it was painfully obvious that there was someone inside of the suit.

Of course, these men didn’t notice the listing of the suit or the servos clicking on and off briefly as the animatronic’s AI noticed a change.

Spring Bonnie’s AI briefly came to before it blinked back out.

The reaction got William thinking, as he was apt to do ever since he was sealed away. Could he manage to override the animatronic’s AI? That one brief flare to life showed that Spring Bonnie wasn’t as broken as it seemed. William felt he knew enough of the code to break through but if he did, would the AI overpower his own wants when it finally kicked back in and remained on?

It wouldn’t do to be controlled by a friendly animatronic rabbit that would be attempting to go find a crowd to entertain. 

”Finally.” One of the men sighed as he stepped back from Spring Bonnie, now awkwardly seated in a cart. “Go take it to the van and get it to the attraction. Just stick it on the floor in the nearest empty room. I’ll figure out where to go from there.”

”Sure thing.”

William tuned the men out as he discreetly checked out his surroundings as he cart he was seated in was wheeled out of the room he had been inside for so long.

Very familiar surroundings.

And those surroundings made William’s undead skin crawl with unease. But there was nothing in the building that wasn’t rotting away and there weren’t any...any...

What was it William thought he might find in this place? He couldn’t recall, but William knew that the recollection that had sparked had been there before it was gone in an instant. The thought must have not been too terribly important if he had been unable to grasp it. Another question, however, did not elude him as he was brought into the back of the van, and left there, the doors left ajar. The moment alone allowed William to try and get a better look at himself, to see if he could gauge how difficult a repair job to the suit would be, and if he could do it himself or not.

From the angle of Spring Bonnie’s head, the animatronic had seen better days. No wonder none of the men recognized the suit. It was filthy and molding, with some pieces of the suit gouged or worn away by time.

How long had William been sealed within this room?

More importantly, what was the state of his own body, skewered and pinned by the metal and plastic within this suit of Spring Bonnie?From the lack of breathing, by all rights William knew that he should be dead. Why hadn’t he moved on after he had died within this animatronic?

William held still, despite being unable to move, until he was certain the men loading a few more items into the van were not paying any attention to him. Not that the wariness mattered because none of them gave him a second look as the vans doors were closed, and the vehicle began to move.

The ride was uneventful.

It honestly did not matter to William where he was being taken, so long as it wasn’t back to be sealed within that room. William didn’t even notice the passage of time within the van, lost in his thoughts as he was. By the time the vehicle slowed, William was more than ready to be left alone for a time, as he figured out what to do with this unexpected rescue.

Being brought into a building and left in a corner of a dim room didn’t overly bother William. There were no doors with which to lock him in, and therefore, he was not as trapped as he was before. What William didn’t particularly care for was that he had been left in a room with Freddy Fazbear paraphernalia. Dead lips twitched up into an amused quirk nonetheless beneath Spring Bonnie’s head.

It seemed like William would never be free of that place, even in death. 

With nothing else to occupy his attention, William set about attempting to get his body, and in turn, Spring Bonnie, to move. William had not bothered overly much in the past, since he had been in such a dark place for so long. 

Why bother forcing a supposedly broken down animatronic if there was nothing to be gained for such an effort? 

But now?

After William has heard, felt, and seen the AI run a brief diagnostic before shutting back down?

Now, he had reason to try to move. 

William was no longer confined, he was in a new place, ahd he was very...curious. Dead though he may be, it made him wonder if…

If...

_There will be no escape for you._

Darkness and silence followed the announcement.

William’s sight flickered back into focus.

Ah, it had happened again. That split second of being forced into whatever unconsciousness a dead body could be whist fused with an animatronic.

William frowned.

But the loss of awareness did not explain that voice it had sounded...sounded almost familiar. But before that...there had been something he had been wondering.

Ah, yes.

Were _they_ still around, like William was, or had _they_ moved on? He didn’t see or hear anything since he had been locked away in that room.

Perhaps he was damned to remain in this world until the animatronic and his own dead body ceased to be.

William stopped that particular train of thought to stare down at himself, without really taking in anything. His mind, despite trying to not think about the past, was continually twisting back to just that. William felt that there was something really wrong, particularly with what he could and couldn’t remember. But the loss of memory, or rather, missing the pieces, was because he hadn’t thought much about the past after he had been spring locked. 

A click and a whirl drew William’s attention to the suit he was trapped within, and groaned, actually groaned, over the way the suit began to twitch and spasm.

What now?

A glitch?

Was it because he had been moved, after staying in one place for so long?

William would have stopped the movement if he was able to get the Spring Bonnie suit to obey his commands. It appeared, however, that the animatronic was trying to go through a routine, before remaining idle until nighttime. 

Spring Bonnie wouldn’t stop twitching.

Why did it hurt so much?

William knew he was dead, from what little he could see of the suit he was pinioned inside of.

So why?

Why did each twitch and spasm the animatronic made drive a fresh wave of agony throughout his entire dead body?

William attempted to try to over override the programming that limited his movements, as well as the twitching that drove the metal and plastic into his already destroyed body with each motion. It proved futile to do much of anything until the animatronic finished with its attempts to get up. And by the time it did, William held both himself and the suit still anyway, wheezing unnecessarily from the pain that still swirled throughout his body. William felt one final apart twitch, just as someone entered the room he was in.

A security guard?

How nostalgic.

What were they doing there? The guard didn’t seem to be very concerned with appearances, what with the tie lopsided and the dress shirt buttoned up haphazardly.

William wasn’t prepared for the guard to leave and then come back with a bucket of water and a scrub brush.

Oh no.

They wouldn’t _dare_.

That was not how one cleaned an animatronic like Spring Bonnie.

But as William couldn’t find any words through the burn of agony still somehow wracking his body. He was forced to endure the guard attempting to scrub the animatronic clean with a series of uttered curses. William twitched the animatronics’ fingers, to see if he could possibly stop the further deterioration of the suit, but William but could do nothing more than that little wiggle. William had to therefore silently endure a shoddy cleaning that no doubt removed some of the fur on the Spring Bonnie suit.

The next part of the guard’s plan was tortuous.

William clenched his dead jaw, unable to grind the remaining teeth that were there.

Why in the hell was this guard haphazardly sewing the wrong golden color in patches over the suit?

This was horrible, watching this foolish guard ruin a piece of art that was Spring Bonnie. 

William almost found the will to move, when some feet had been found to be slipped over the metal endoskeleton’s. William couldn't believe that the guard had the audacity to sew the obviously mismatched colored feet to his ankles. Or rather, to the ankles of the suit. William watched with a critical eye as his jaw clenched down harder. He would have fired this person on the spot for doing such a horrendous job of trying to ‘fix’ the animatronic suit. 

William would have made repairs to the suit himself, as he had always wanted Spring Bonnie to look just so.

This?

What the guard had done?

Unforgivable.

It would take William hours and hours to repair the terrible patchwork job. And he knew there was more to it, but William couldn’t even move Spring Bonnie’s head yet to see just how bad the rest of the suit looked.

At the very least, the guard had finally ended up leaving, but only after they had deemed William less shitty-looking.

To this, the dead man had glared at the guard, despite the look going unseen. 

A shame.

William waited until he was certain that the guard was gone, before he went back to trying to get the suit to move. He had to inspect the guard’s laughable repair work, because William had yet to see all of what had been done. Right now, the best William could manage with what he had gotten done with the coding was jerk the animatronic head to the left side.

“Shoddy.” William rasped aloud after a moment of tracing the stitching with Spring Bonnie’s eyes. William stopped what he was doing, as he had surprised himself by hearing his own voice for the first time in a long while.

A short silence followed.

“Intriguing...” William let out a wheeze of breathless laughter, mind turning over how he could possibly speak as a dead man. Spring Bonnie’s voice box was broken, so William knew it was his own voice that he heard. It seemed he did not need his body in working order to still speak.

Interesting.

William went back to eyeing the suit from the angle he’d tipped Spring Bonnie’s head.

The sewing and rough scrubbing the animatronic suit had been given wasn’t as bad as he thought it might have been. At the very least, the new faux fur that had been haphazardly sewn to old fur hid the dead body within the suit a little better. It was just to bad that the fur was of varying thickness meant for different animatronics, giving the animatronic a patchwork-like fur appearance.

William supposed that it was lucky, for the guard, at least, to not have attempted to clean the teeth of the Spring Bonnie head. That would have given the guard an unpleasant surprise had the animatronic jaw been opened up even a tad bit.

“Lucky for them…that I cannot…move…yet...” Words were rough and difficult to get out, but get them out William did. The renewed quiet helped him turn over his options, before William resumed his attempts to override the animatronics suit’s programming that had been switched to keep him still until it was nighttime.

“Tampered with…” William muttered to himself, as he attempted to clench a hand into a fist. 

But when?

When could someone have possibly have tampered with a spring lock suit?   
  
Had it been before he had put on the Spring Bonnie suit for the last time? Or after, before he had been sealed off in that room?

Another question William had no answer to.

Some hours passed by without notice, as William made progress with Spring Bonnie’s AI, despite how slow it was going. William figured that the guard would return until late in the evening. When that guard showers again, William would…observe them, before deciding what he would do with the guard’s presence. 

“One step…at a time…” William reminded himself hoarsely, as he idly played with the codes before his eyes, adjusting the programming as he saw fit. Easy, yet time consuming, when he only partially knew what he was doing.

“Finally…” William let out an unnecessary sigh of satisfaction as he found that he could finally move the animatronic of his own volition. 

Good.

William wanted to be able to create some doubt in the guard about this whole venture in this dilapidated building. Wherever this place was. William had partially overheard the men from before about what was planned for him. Or what was planned for Spring Bonnie, in this place. William didn’t particularly care where he was, since it was no longer that boarded up room. One thing was blatantly clear, though.

William was not in a real Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzaria. It was a sham, from what little William could see of the room he was inside of. A facsimile of what had once been, and from the look of it, this building appeared like it was going to be used to scare people in some way.

William’s own lips twitched even as Spring Bonnie’s reflected an eternal, cheerful grin.

How very…interesting this all was.

William would go explore his new surroundings, but not straight away, as he had to spend the next few hours testing out the way the animatronic suit responded to his motion while pinioned within it.

“Little…steps.” William reminded himself. He had been shut away for so long in the dark that everything was a little discombobulating. Not to mention that it was a little tricky to figure out how to move such a bulky costume while fused with it.

“Damned…spring locks…” William wheezed out. The dead man was pleased to find that despite the oddness of his body pierced by the animatronic parts and held in place, he could still move. In fact, William could move as he had before, when the metal and plastic were held back by the spring locks.

The only difference was that it hurt to move.

Every motion William made sent stabs of sharp pain throughout his destroyed body. The stiffness of the animatronic’s motions after the suit not moving for so long was not hard to understand. It was the pain and agony that made no sense.

Why was he in pain if he was already dead? 

William could sense, as before, that he was obviously very dead within the suit. William gave his head a little shake, regretting it instantly as the spring locks pressed sharply into his neck with the motion. William let out a hiss and clapped a hand over his neck, only to cause himself more agony as he hit the back of the suit too hard.

“Wh...why...?” William choked out, even as he forced the suit into stillness while he waited for the stab of agony that had gone from the base of his neck to the rest of his body, before becoming a full body ache. 

William heaved in several useless breaths.  
Was he being punished? Probably, since he was still…alive, in a way.

Existing, anyhow.

William held as still as was possible until the ache became bearable. Once it was, he was able to rise stiffly to animatronic feet, hearing the gears and servos whining at the sudden movement. Once William was certain that he was balanced and would not fall over, he decided to explore this place.

“See if there’s…any familiarity in this place.” William told himself, as he shuffled Spring Bonnie out of the room and down a hall. He didn’t get very far before he halted in the entryway of what appeared to be a storage room. 

“I see…they were salvaging…in that place I was locked away in…” William lurched into the room, ducking his head as best he could. But he misjudged how far to duck, and felt the way one of the ears of the suit brushed the top of the door-frame. William cocked his head to the side, winced over the spring locks digging in again, and righted his head.

“Have to get...used to that…” William rasped aloud. Why he wasn’t keeping his thoughts internal was likely because it had been so long since he had heard his own voice. Not that it was pleasant to listen to now. William stopped before a few stacked boxed, and began to rummage through one, not entirely certain what it was he was looking for.

Clues, maybe.

Nothing piqued William’s attention in the first or second box, but in the third box that was rummaged around in with stiff animatronic fingers over human ones that didn’t quite work wielded a result. William held up the small prize he had claimed, held between occasionally-twitching animatronic fingers.

A tattered purple bow-tie.

With a little effort and fumbling fingers, William managed to secure the bow-tie to the upper chest plate. It went beneath the collar of the suit, where a hole for the bow tie remained. William found a crooked mirror hung up in the room, and took in the sight of the Spring Bonnie animatronic.

He was in terrible condition, or the suit was, anyway, as William had no idea what he looked like apart from the sensation of what his own body felt like. William’s jaw clenched beneath the mask.

He was dead.

It infuriated William to not know why. A rough wheezing laugh suddenly emitted from William’s trapped body, shaking his thin frame, and in turn, making the animatronic body shake as well, and make it appear more terrifying than it was ever mean to be.

”Dead men...tell no tales.” William murmured, twitching a hand up. “Why then, am I still here?”

A hand reached out to rest on the mirror briefly as William studied his reflection, before he let the limb drop and reached up with both hands. They shook, as William took hold of either side of the animatronic jaw, jamming fingers into place. William took another useless breath before he braced himself and wrenched Spring Bonnie’s jaw open to see what he looked like.

It hurt, forcing the animatronic mouth open like this when metal was fused to his body. But William ignores the pain and stared at himself in the mirror. What he saw wasn’t as much of a surprise as he thought it would be. A gaunt, discolored face stared back at William, the skin stretched taut around eyeless sockets that seemed to have a faint pinprick of a white glow in them. A gaping mouth completed the look, with what little teeth remained within it.

A monster.

How fitting.

William recalled the last time he had heard that term thrown at him, though it seemed like it had been so very long ago. William studied his reflection for a moment longer, noting the way that the spring locks and other metals dug into his skin, fusing him with Spring Bonnie’s suit over the time that had passed. 

_Suffer as we have suffered._

William cocked his head to the side, wincing as it jostled the animatronic head he still held open. Had he…imagined that quiet voice?

_You can’t hide from what you’ve done._

What were these…voices? They sounded…familiar. Very familiar. But why? Where has he heard them before?

_We found you. Soon, she will find you._

William cast a glance to one side and then another, before looking at himself in the mirror. There was no one there but him.

She _won’t let you escape._ We _won’t let you._

William offered his reflection a near-toothless grin over the sound of the echoed voices, uncaring whether he was imagining the distinctly different voices or not. 

He was dead. 

What more could possibly be done to him to make it worse?

_There is no rest for monsters._

William caught a glimpse of something as large as Spring Bonnie in the mirror behind him. It was that sight in the mirror that had William letting go of the mask to let it snap back into place as he forced the animatronic to turn around. 

He could have sworn he had seen a flash of gold.

William completed turning around, but found that there was nothing there. Only boxes of old Freddy Fazbear Pizzaria items. He was alone, but William could have sworn that the last voice that had spoken had been right behind him.

The tone of that voice had been harsh and accusing.

An echo of the past or something more?

William turned back to the mirror in a few jerky motions once the voices did not speak again. The dead man studied Spring Bonnie’s head, before using the green-colored eyes of the suit to look to the side, where the open doorway was.

What to do, what to do.

This was a conundrum, to be sure. What did one do when they were dead but not remaining so?

Avoid detection until answers could be found.

William couldn’t let anyone know who he was, for the time being. It would just figure that someone would connect the dots of what he had done while alive and then find some way to make his life a living hell. Or as he was now, an undead nightmare, William supposed. 

But if he were to…speak to someone, what should he have them call him? 

William stared at the mirror again, searching his new body, so to speak, as if a name would come to mind. It was Spring Bonnie, and yet not, with its patchwork fur not quite matching the old, and its overall battered appearance. A near-toothless grin, an echo of an old smile of William’s surfaced as a light briefly flared in dead eye sockets.

Springtrap.

After all, had William not been spring locked to death in this suit?

It seemed rather fitting.

So Springtrap William would be to those who ran across him in this animatronic suit.

Springtrap raised a hand, clenching it into and out of a fist experimentally. It reaffirmed the knowledge that he would still have to figure out how to get the bulky animatronic suit to move around efficiently.

“Time…will help.” Springtrap rasped, as he lurched unsteadily out of the storage room and back down the hall to the room that he had been left inside of earlier. Lowering himself to the floor was rather difficult and slow going, but Springtrap managed to get seated back in place.

And waited.

There wasn’t much Springtrap could do at present until he learned more of his situation. Nor could he just walk himself out of the building, as Spring Bonnie’s AI had accidently picked up some settings that prevented Springtrap from seeing what could have easily been observed before with human eyes. If he laid ‘eyes’ on an entrance or exit now, Springtrap would be unable to go through it because the suit he was trapped within couldn’t ‘see’ the doors.

So, Springtrap would have to wait for the best opportunity to make his next move.

The guard couldn’t return to this depressing place soon enough.

The nostalgia was one thing.

Faint whispers of those Springtrap knew to be dead was another thing entirely, and one he wasn’t entirely sure was an echo of the past or not.

_You can hide from the world in one of your animatronics, but in the end, you will be found. We may not be able to be there now, but when we all meet again, there will be no way out for you._

Another flash of gold came from out of the corner of the animatronic’s vision, which made Springtrap’s head sharply turn, both jaws biting down hard in tandem.

Nothing.

There was absolutely nothing.

Springtrap was the only one in the building at present. There was no one else that was dead that had decided to join him to torment him. The dead ought to remain dead. Yet with Springtrap’s own continued existence, and what he had witnessed before he’d been spring locked into this suit…he wasn’t as sure as he had been before.

A flash of gold in the mirror...and gone as quick as it had appeared, along with the sinister message.

Springtrap gave his head a shake, a sharp ache travelling through the pieces of metal fused to his neck.

A coincidence.

It had to be.

The sight of a suit similarly colored to his own had to have been figment of his imagination. Being trapped in the dark within a broken mind, with a body that was locked inside of an equally damaged animatronic? It wasn't all that surprising that whatever he had that passed for eyes may play have played tricks on him after so little use. The dead man within the dilapidated Spring Bonnie suit wanted answers, regardless of his situation, and what he may or may not have heard and seen since leaving.

Springtrap had all the time in the world to get those answers he desired, imagined voices haunting him or not. Another flash of gold and a whisper of a voice just out of hearing had Springtrap temporarily blocking out the world while he awaited the guard’s return.

The voices that he had heard, just like the flash of gold he had seen...they were merely the past haunting him.

Nothing more.


	3. Interlude I

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick note: decided to keep these parts separate.

In a darkened building some distance from Fazbear’s Fright, there was a worn-looking box in the corner of a room, decorated as a present. Music played steadily from an unseen source as footsteps echoed faintly along the floor until they came to a halt by the box. 

“Time to wake up.” A quiet voice murmured, barely audible as a golden animatronic hand lightly rested on the top of the box.

Something stirred within the box.

“He’s come back.” A lighter colored golden animatronic hand rested on the box next to the other. “I need your help.”

Both golden colored animatronic bears lifted their heads to look at one another. Similar yet different, their bow ties and hats were a contrast between the black of one and the purple of the other. Both looked back down almost in unison.

Three souls would speak to one another for the first time in years.

The music soon stopped playing, and in the silence that followed, the box was slowly opened by long limbs tipped with curved, almost claw-like fingers.

“He actually came back, did he? I thought you two told me he was gone for good.” A new voice asked of the two bear animatronics, as a mask peered out of the box.

“I waited for decades to make certain he didn’t.” The animatronic with the purple top hat said, one hand clenching at its side. “But he’s...like us, and not.”

”I haven’t told the others.” The animatronic with the black hat top admitted, even if it sounded a little evasive. “They are...happy, or as much as one can be like...this.” The bear animatronic wiggled its fingers at the other two.

“Are you going to tell them, or should I?” The rest of the box’s occupant fluidly moved up and out of the box, revealing it to be a long-limbed marionette as it floated eerily above the floor. 

“I’ll...find a way to break it to them, but only if absolutely necessary. If the three of us can take care of things...then we can discuss what comes after.” The animatronic settled on the ground with a grunt, as the animatronic with the purple top hat reached out to keep the other upright.

”Don’t push yourself, Michael. And don’t worry about telling the others. They already know, don’t they? You went with them?” At the tip of Michael’s animatronic golden animatronic body, white light flared briefly in the darkness of the other animatronic bear’s eyes, as a hand reached up to briefly touch the purple top hat. “I can’t get out of this place on my own like the rest of you. I’m...tied more closely to this...animatronic body.”

“You’re the only one whose soul works a little bit...differently, Cassidy. But that just means that you can do what none of the rest of us can.” The black top hat tilted a little. “Are you...are you ready, then? Will it even work? What you talked about last week?”

“I am...but I need to move fast, before it is too late. There’s only a little window of time to make certain it works. It was a chance...but it seems to have paid off, even if this wasn’t how I pictured things going...” To the marionette levitating nearby, the animatronic in the purple top spoke. “Can you leave the premises at all, Charlotte? For even a short amount of time?”

“Charlie, please. But yes, I should be able to. This puppet’s body doesn’t seem to have been reprogrammed like the others.” Pinpricks of light appeared in the marionette’s eyes as it looked at its companions, before focusing on the soul of Cassidy. “What do you have in mind?”


	4. An Uneasy Night

I was more exhausted than I ought to have been after my first real work shift. But when I returned home from Fazbear’s Fright early that morning, I found that sleep continued to elude me. Constant exhaustion seemed to be the case as of late for me. I wasn’t entirely surprised by this, considering my nightmares, and since I didn't want to dwell on what caused them, I found something to occupy myself with.

The decision to do research on past Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza locations likely wasn't the best idea, but it was a distraction. Besides, that ugly, beat-up animatronic rabbit that my boss had found surely had to come from one of those places, right? There had to be some kind of information I could find that wasn’t a hoax or misinformation. There couldn't be that much to sift through, I figured, as I booted up my computer.

I was wrong.

Very, very wrong.

There was so much more information than I could have possibly imagined finding while delving into the past of the place Fazbear's Fright was based off of. The rumors made up a large chunk of the information I ended up coming across, as did the online speculation about what had happened at the old pizza chain locations. Each Freddy Fazbear’s had its own set of rumors, and with each location that opened and then was subsequently closed, even more rumors and incidents rose up.

The Bite of ‘87.

Missing children back in ‘83.

A possible serial killer on the loose.

There were so many missing children, whether they were rumored to be killed, or never seen again. I even found discussions on different forums about some of the old places, where people speculated over what could have happened to the children. Some thread discussions went as far back in their speculation to a place called Fredbear’s Family Diner. According to the timeline I was slowly piecing together, the diner had come before Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. 

Upon further digging, I found that there were two co-founders of the diner.

Henry Emily and WIlliam Afton.

I kept glued to to the computer as I dug further, feeling compelled to learn as much as possible. I don’t know what made me soak up so much information, but told myself that I wanted to know as much as I could before going back to work that night.

Hours passed, and even if there was a lot of information and not a lot of answers, I knew at least one thing for certain now.

The animatronic that was in Fazbear’s Fright was most likely Spring Bonnie, since old photos would have matched the suit when it was in better condition. How my boss had located such an old animatronic was beyond me, but at least I could like of it as something other than that ‘rabbit animatronic.’

Spring Bonnie.

Looking at those older photos, I noticed that the fur was nearly non existent, since it was so close to the animatronic body.

Well, shit.

My boss would notice the difference, and might not be happy with my terrible patch job.

I sighed as I clicked away from the photo of Spring Bonnie. I would just have to bring in a portable razor that I could get in a store on my way into work that night. I’d just shave down the fur and hope the gold fur blended together, and finish up by giving the ears a bit of a scrub.

Problem solved, hopefully.

Shaking my head, I opened up another window on the computer. I resumed reading about William Afton, and made a point to avoid pictures of the guy while I was at it. There was just something very unsettling about the man’s smile in the photographs, and I eventually stumbled across a potential reason why. There happened to be quite a lot of speculation over the idea that Mr. Afton was behind the kids being abducted, but there was no proof. 

No bodies.

No blood.

Nothing.

Not even reliable witnesses.

And then there was talk about one of the Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza locations in particular. The one where there were rumors of the animatronics wandering around the building at night. From the sound of it, that wouldn’t have been out of the ordinary, but what wasn’t was the fact that the animatronics tried to get to the night guard. There were even rumors of the animatronics attacking people, which was attributed to their programming being messed up at some point, perhaps by a tech who made an error.

It was all very confusing, and had me concerned that Spring Bonnie might activate while I was on shift. But that was unlikely, wasn’t it? Spring Bonnie really ought not to turn on at all. It had been so beaten up when I first laid eyes on it, even if it was during the day. I was only somewhat worried now because one of the forums talked about beaten up animatronics that had been used used for parts activating and moving around at night as well.

Maybe looking too closely at the rumors was a bad idea. I might start imagining things that weren’t there when I went back to work tonight. I glanced back at the computer screen, accidentally focusing on a photo of William Afton, and felt a sense of unease roll over me. What a creepy motherfucker, smiling like he was in that photo. He seemed far too happy to be dressed up in the Spring Bonnie costume, holding the head under an arm. 

Was it the same one that was in Fazbear’s Fright?

Nah.

That was an animatronic, and the one in the photo was clearly being worn by a person. It had to be two different suits, because how else would one fit into a costume meant for an animatronic to move around on its own?

I checked out the photo again, and landed on just why I didn’t like the photos of William Afton that I was running across.

It was his smile.

That smile...it didn’t reach the man’s eyes. With every year that passed by for each of the photos, there was less and less of a spark in those eyes, until it looked like no one was home inside.

This guy wasn’t still around, was he?

I typed in another search, and found information that I really did not want to see.

William Afton was missing, and had been for over 30 years. It looked like he was lost from the public eye a few years after he had been released from being held for questioning in the disappearance of children, both at Fredbear’s Family Diner, and a few Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza locations after the diner was closed.

That was...odd, and no one seemed to know where he could have gotten to, while others were certain he was guilty and merely hiding away.

It made me wonder what had happened to Henry Emily.

A search showed split results.

One half thought Henry was dead because of the loss of his daughter, but the other half of the results indicated that Henry was still alive. At least as of the date on some of the articles I had found, dated between 10-20 years ago. Which meant if Henry was still alive, he would have to be at least 60 years old by now, give or take.

I couldn’t find an actual age for either Henry or William, either because no one knew, or because the information had been removed for whatever reason. I read for a little while longer before deciding that I needed to stop for now. If I read any more of the speculation, I wouldn’t be able to even think about getting some sleep. I certainly wouldn’t get any rest if I let my mind drift to the old Freddy’s location that was in my nightmares.

The whispers.

The sense of being watched toward the end of my first actual shift before I had gone home around 6:15 AM.

I had to close my eyes and push it all away for as long as I could. I would have to go in for work tonight whether I wanted to or not.

Demons of the past possibilities haunting the props my boss had brought to Fazbear’s Fright was not a valid excuse to not go in to work.

Pushing away from my desk, I logged off of the computer and left the small room, before collapsing onto the couch. Flinging an arm over my eyes, I let out a slow sigh and attempted to shut my thoughts off to nothing.

It didn’t help.

The panic and slowly-rising anxiety from the near fatal accident began to spiral out of control with nothing to occupy my mind. It was affecting my attempts to doze off, which only made my body act out more in response. It was only when the sheer exhaustion finally sank in that I was able to rest. I drifted, not quite fully asleep yet out enough that I was unaware of my surroundings. Because I really should have been concerned by the sensation of a hand slipping into my own to give it a gentle squeeze, as if someone was trying to reassure me.

That was...nice.

I could really use someone telling me that everything would be all right. That the nightmares would lessen and that I would be able to get on with my life eventually, even if there was an occasional night where I couldn’t sleep, when the memories were too much.

The hand that held mine seemed larger than my own, with no warmth coming from it. Spindly fingers held my hand firmly, as something warm settled around my neck, almost like necklace where a pendant rested on my chest, increasing that sense of warmth and peace. I relaxed, feeling myself fall into a deeper sleep than I had been able to. The hand within my own grasped mine for a short while longer, before it withdrew. I slept on, thinking nothing of the odd experience that had just happened.

Whispers followed, but none audible enough to make out the words.

-x-x-x-

I woke feeling refreshed, and oddly not at all worried over the idea of someone holding my hand in an otherwise empty apartment.

Likely just my imagination, and desire for someone to be there for me.

Alone.

I was alone, and if my boss didn’t contact me again, I would continue to be alone, apart from crossing paths with random strangers outside my apartment.

Had I been alone before all of my memories became scattered and distant?

Giving my head a firm shake, I slid off the couch and headed for the front door of my apartment. I wasn’t very hungry right now, and figured that I could always eat after I came back from getting that cordless battery operated razor. I left my home, even though it didn’t feel like my actual home at times. I had a store to get to, and a meal to eat before going in to work. The hours passed by quickly and soon enough, I was due to go back for my second full shift at Fazbear’s Fright. Regardless of how prepared I was that night, I still hated the idea of having to share the space with that horrid animatronic, broken-down rabbit. 

Spring Bonnie, I reminded myself. 

Irritatingly enough, my boss continued to be oddly silent, even after I had sent several emails and texts to him. I decided to give him some more time to get back to me, as it was likely that my boss could be deep inside of another old Fazbear’s location trying to find more animatronics. 

One was enough, in my opinion.

Spring Bonnie might have looked okay when it had first been made but right now, after not seeing the light of day for probably decades, something just seemed off about it.

Yes, I had scrubbed the animatronic clean and patched it up, but that was during the day. 

Would Spring Bonnie have moved in the time that I had been gone?

I shoved open the front door of Fazbear’s Fright, and knew that I would find out soon. I made my way to the ‘security office,’ only to stop dead in my tracks the sight of Spring Bonnie. The animatronic was right where it had been left earlier, slumped on the ground, but what it hadn’t had before I left earlier was a bow-tie. 

My boss must be fucking with me, trying to get in my head for whatever reason. 

Well, it wasn’t going to work.

”Time for a shave.” I told Spring Bonnie, as I pulled out the cordless razor to shave the fur down that I had sewn on. “This does look pretty bad when it is all different heights.” I added, careful to avoid inhaling the floating pieces of synthetic fur as I made my way from the top to the bottom of the animatronic, and then shoved it forward to get at its back in. At one point, I shut the razor off, as I could have sworn I heard a muffled groan, as if someone were upset about something. 

But there was no sound apart from my quiet breathing.

Evening out the longer patches of fur went decently well, and so the animatronic didn’t look too terribly patchwork by the time I was finished, except for its upper back and sides.

Damn.

Maybe there was some kind of clothing I could slip onto the animatronic to hide the...discrepancy?

The storage room did have a lot of odds and ends, so I went there to go rummage around.

I got lucky.

There was a faded purple vest that would match the bow-tie Spring Bonnie was already wearing. The vest had stars sewn into it, though even they were faded with time. But the article of clothing looked like it was big enough to hide the mistakes I had made while sewing in those patches of fur.

Back to Spring Bonnie, I guess.

Carrying the purple vest back to the animatronic was uneventful but I honestly didn’t expect to see Spring Bonnie sitting upright in a rigid way. Its arms were slightly raised, as if it had been in the middle getting up to stand. I squinted at the rabbit. Had I left Spring Bonnie upright like that, or leaning forward? I gave a disgusted shake of my head and stepped closer, shaking out the vest from how it had been folded up. This place was gloomy and was most certainly fucking with my mind. The animatronic wasn’t moving, and I hadn’t been gone for all that long.

Everything was fine.

”I think the vest will distract people from staring too hard at my sewing job.” I muttered to Spring Bonnie distractedly, as I slipped the right arm through the vest. I went to stand behind the animatronic to get the the vest against its back. I leaned up against Spring Bonnie’s left side as I struggled to tug the arm through the vest. I bit the inside of my lip when I jostled the animatronic, which made Spring Bonnie lean into me, its arm following suit. But I was able to maneuver the vest on, and moved away as quick as I could from the anmatronic, watching it warily.

Spring Bonnie remained leaning over sideways, but that wasn’t what bothered me.

”Guess that worked out, even if I wasn’t expecting you to move like that.” I went to go grab the scrub brush and a bucket of water, telling myself that the animatronic just naturally fell over from me pushing against it. But...if that was the case, shouldn’t it have leaned in the opposite direction?

This place really wasn’t good for my psyche.

”Fucking hell.” I breathed mutinously under my breath, when I came back with bucket and scrub brush in now-gloved hands, sprouting a mask over my mouth.

Spring Bonnie was upright again.

”That is just not right.” I waited to see if it would move, but when it didn’t, I approached and reached out to seize the less broken left ear. “Time to finish your bath, you ugly fucker.” I scraped the mold off as best I could, and used the suds in the bucket to go over the ear several times. I let go of the left ear to go on to what was left of the right ear, and had to be more careful due to the wires and metal that were exposed.

It went a lot quicker than cleaning up the animatronic earlier in the day.

I eyed the ears after I was finished with them, before disposing of my cleaning supplies for the night. I would deal with patching the ears up tomorrow, if I was feeling kind toward Spring Bonnie. It kind of depended on whether or not the animatronic remained more or less motionless. With a final suspicious look at the motionless animatronic, I headed for my office, and I got my equipment ready so I could settle in for the night. I let out a low, aggravated sigh when I chanced a glance at the clock and found that it was only 12:15 AM. 

Why had I come in so early, apart from coming soon enough that Spring Bonnie didn’t come to life to bite my head off?

I really shouldn’t have read so much about those past Fazbear’s locations. 

There was no reason for Spring Bonnie to activate when it had been in such poor condition.

I hoped, anyway, as I began to half-heartedly poke at the buttons to scroll through the static-filled camera feed. I was in for another boring night, wasn’t I? An hour passed in relative silence as I continued to causally scroll through the screens, both inside the halls and rooms, and inside the vent for something different as I passed the time. But motion out of the corner of my eye caught my attention, causing me to miss hitting a button as I hit the desk hard with my hand.

There was something moving in the static of the monitor.

Impossible, unless..

Was that…was that Spring Bonnie slowly getting to its feet?

I could see, even on the small screen of the monitor, the way the animatronic's jaw open slightly in a facade of a wide, happy grin before snapping shut.

What the hell?

I squinted at the monitor through the static.

No _way_. 

That animatronic had been in such terrible shape. There was no way that Spring Bonnie should have been able to move. It hadn’t made so much as a twitch yesterday while I worked on it, or an hour earlier. But...it had moved, in a way, when it seemed to have sat upright on its own when I wasn't looking, and then again, when it had leaned in my direction.

Something wasn't right.

I stared at the monitor again, and saw Spring Bonnie adjusting the vest in a rather fastidious way to make it fit on its frame.

That was...odd. Would the animatronic even be aware of clothing that was put on it? Spring Bonnie appeared to be aware, and that right there was rather concerning.

Animatronics weren’t supposed to be self-aware, at least according to old documents and articles I had come across.

I stared hard at the static-filled monitor, and watched with a sense of trepidation as the animatronic dropped its hands to the side. I watched as the rabbit's head turned one way and then another, before tilting back to face the camera. To my surprise, Spring Bonnie slowly raised one of its hands and gave the camera a little wave. 

It was done in a rather mocking manner, if that was even possible. 

Spring Bonnie jerkily lowered its hand to its side before slowly beginning to shuffle down the hall.

“Oh _hell_ no. You did not just wave at me like that, you motherfucker.” I uttered in disbelief at the monitor. “You shouldn’t even know I’m here, let alone know what a camera is.” I took a moment to reset the ventilation, before I went straight back to the monitors to track Spring Bonnie’s slow progress. I watched as the animatronic cocked its head to the side, twitching a little, before it stopped and stared up at another camera. It almost seemed like Spring Bonnie was be able to…see through the monitor to me, even though I knew that was impossible. There couldn’t be any way that the animatronic knew there was someone watching it. 

I was proven wrong.

Spring Bonnie again raised a hand, this time much more fluidly, to give the camera what was definitely a mocking wiggle of its fingers. The faint whispers making their way back to me made the sight worse.

_He knows you're here._

_Be careful._

_Don't be fooled._

_Don't get caught._

Spring Bonnie swayed from side to side as if listening to music that wasn't there as the animatronic made a turn down another hall and headed straight for the office.

What the fuck?

Was that thing attempting to dance its way to me?

That was creepy as hell.

Static monitor it may have been, I didn’t like the way that thing had looked at me. Spring Bonnie’s gaze was almost too sentient, even if I knew better. The animatronic must have really fucked up programming after so much time being neglected.

Fuck this.

I wasn’t going to stay here and wait for that thing to slowly stagger to my office and corner me inside of it. I didn’t know if Spring Bonnie was trying to be friendly, like the animatronic had been in the past when it was supposed to entertain children. To me, at least right now, it felt as if I was looking at an animatronic that was too far gone and when it found me, it would see me as something to…attack.

Spring Bonnie was not walking around Fazbear’s Fright aimlessly.

The animatronic was headed right to the office without any hesitation.

I had heard the stories, and read up on them earlier, but I'd taken those rumors with a grain of salt. The speculation over the children who disappeared, the possible murders and the way animatronics had attacked. I didn’t know what to believe, but I wasn’t about to spend the rest of my shift without something to protect myself. Not that anything short of a flame thrower would protect me from a metal endoskeleton beneath that suit of the rabbit.

A broken guitar in the box of the office would just have to do. 

I dropped into a crouch to huddle to one side of the door to my office, and waited for the animatronic to come to me. Soon enough, I heard Spring Bonnie get close enough to hear its heavy, unsteady footsteps and the terrible grinding of gears, along with what sounded like an aggravated sigh.

Who the hell had just sighed?

Me?

It couldn’t possibly have been the animatronic.

I pressed my back to the wall, crouched low, and poised the guitar in a way to maximize the swing. Spring Bonnie lurched into the room, but I held off, waiting with bated breath. 

The animatronic needed to come in a little bit more. 

I warily tracked the way the animatronic's head swung to one side and then the other. I was certain that it had seen me, but when it faced forward again with that horrid sighing sound, I relaxed ever so slightly. 

Spring Bonnie took a few more steps inside the office, and that was when I struck.

I swung the guitar, while apologizing internally to my boss over the damage, as I connected with the back of the exposed knee of the animatronic. I was honestly surprised that I ended up knocking the animatronic off balance. 

Spring Bonnie pitched forward with what almost sounded like a grunt right before it crashed noisily to the ground.

I didn’t stick around to watch, instead taking the guitar with me as I ran out of the room. I cursed as I briefly stopped to peer through the long window that showed the office.

Spring Bonnie was attempting to right itself in order to get to its hands and feet.

What the ever loving fuck was this bullshit?

I was going to kick my boss’ ass, job or not, as I ran my ass as fast as I could to the back door. But when I reached the exit, and turned the handle, my stomach dropped, a little nausea rising within me.

The door was stuck fast, and upon closer inspection, there was a timer.

I was locked in.

 _Great_.

What was I supposed to do, survive until 6 AM? Trapped in this place with Spring Bonnie waltzing around like it was perfectly normal for a supposedly broken-down animatronic to suddenly be in motion? I heard a distance crash, of expensive equipment being knocked off my desk, probably. The sound made me wrap my hands around the upper part of the now half-broken guitar.

Fine.

I would just have to take Spring Bonnie’s feet out from under it again and sit on the damn animatronic or something until the exit decided to unlock for me. I was not being paid enough to deal with a malfunctioning mascot character of an old pizza chain, or rather, of an animatronic from Fredbear’s Family Diner, that had long been out of business.

The ventilation went out five minutes later. 

I let out a put-upon sigh.

Lovely.

The reset button was in the office where Spring Bonnie currently was, and from what I had heard, the animatronic wasn't happy over being knocked down. And if I didn't want to pass out, I would just have to deal with possibly getting in close contact with Spring Bonnie.

Wasn’t that just the icing on the fucking cake?

I held the guitar firmly and began to stalk toward the office, and hoped that Spring Bonnie wasn't going to do that creepy caper from the hallway when it spotted me. If that was how the animatronic was programmed to gain little kids interest and put them at ease, I didn't want to see what Spring Bonnie would do to someone who wasn't going to deal with the act.

Act?

Not really, I guess, since that weird half-dance sway was likely set within the AI's programming.

I reached the long window outside my office, and carefully peered through. Spring Bonnie was still on the ground, awkwardly trying to get up, but then seemed to sense my stare. I stood rooted to the spot as the animatronic raised its head to look at me, before a hand lifted to be level with its body, the other hand trying to push it upright.

Spring Bonnie gave a little wave, and I could have sworn I heard a terribly raspy laugh.

Fuck.

Nope. 

Nope. Nope. Nope.

Not going in there.

I would risk passing out until Spring Bonnie got the hell out of my office. At least, that was my thought, until I turned around and came face to face with a disintegrating, dirty see-through green colored Freddy Fazbear.

A phantom, or a figment of my imagination that came with the alarm going off?

_Don't let him catch you. We can't help you here._

The whispering from before was more audible now, and for some reason, this particular whisper seemed to come directly from Freddy.

To my surprise, the Freddy phantom dropped the tablet that reset the ventilation right in front of me. I didn't think anything of it, and merely dropped to my hands and knees to hit the reset button immediately. When the ventilation was back to normal, and the alarm stopped blaring, I quickly glanced back up to look at Freddy.

The phantom wasn't there any longer, but Spring Bonnie in my office was, still presumably trying to get up from the sound of it. 

I took the tablet and ran back the way I had come, taking the broken guitar with me. If I could remotely reset the ventilation, there was no reason to go any closer to Spring Bonnie until I could figure out the animatronic's intentions. But according to the whispers I had heard tonight, I should probably keep my distance. There wasn't anyone else in the building with me apart from the single animatronic, after all, and if those voices I was hearing didn't want me to go near the creepy moving rabbit, then maybe I shouldn't. Hell, for all I knew, the whispers could be my own subconscious telling me to keep my distance.

"One big...happy family." A voice from the distance seemed to say in a sing-song way. "...but where have they...all gone?" 

The voice was too faint to figure out where it was coming from, but I thought it sounded...distracted, but soon, the light sounding tone changed with the next set of words, sounding focused now.

"Nowhere...to hide and nowhere to...run to. No escape." A laugh sounded, an ugly, disturbing sound. "So familiar and yet...so different. How very...interesting."

An involuntarily shiver ran up my spine.

Was Spring Bonnie's AI spitting out some of its lines as it attempted to get back up to its feet? Or had someone managed to break into the building? Because those words sure as hell didn't sound like they were being spoken at random, nor did the voice sound like it was emitting from an animatronic.

I lingered near the exit of Fazbear's Fright, my back pressed against the nearest wall as I waited for Spring Bonnie to begin to move again. My thoughts began to crowd in on themselves before I focused on the two most important questions I had.

Where were those whispers coming from, and just whose voice had I heard speak so faintly?

Another, more important question rose to the forefront of my mind.

What the hell was going on?


	5. Missing Pieces

The audacity of the night guard to strike at him with a blunt object had been a miscalculation on Springtrap’s part. But even as inconvenient as being struck was, the action by the guard against an animatronic body had been rather amusing.

It was...different.

Springtrap hadn’t anticipated that the night guard would be bold enough to face him in any capacity. He had expected the guard to keep well away of him, and to run aimlessly around in the halls of this place in a poor attempt to avoid an animatronic rabbit that was in motion of its own volition. Instead, the guard had hidden and been smart to attempt to incapacitate Springtrap. Not that the smack would do any good in the end, being merely an inconvenience when one without knowledge of how the animatronic worked tried to dismantle or break a suit.

That being said...the attack really hadn’t caused any actual damage, as it had been more of a surprise than anything. But what Springtrap didn’t realize was that the animatronic’s body would actually buckle from the smack the guard had given the back of the left knee, where there was no protective casing. All that had been back there was a joint to bend and some faux fur between it on either side. The entire animatronic pitched forward from that single misstep from the strike, causing Springtrap to collapse onto the floor.

The guard had used the fall to run out of the office to make themselves scarce.

Springtrap couldn’t be bother to worry about where that night guard got to in that moment, because it hurt, falling to the floor in an ungainly and rather large animatronic body.

The pain was difficult to comprehend.

Springtrap could do nothing to prevent the metal and plastic that pierced his flesh from driving even further into his dead body. The agony he experienced from the sudden pain caused Springtrap to temporarily hold completely still, or as best he could manage, until the pain began to fade away to a bearable ache. Springtrap, when he was satisfied that he would be able to move around again, maneuvered the animatronic body up to its hands and knees. He took a short break to reorient himself before Springtrap began to go about the arduous task of rising to his feet. It was as difficult an endeavor as it had been before, when one was in an animatronic suit that was bulkier than a human. 

It was going to take a little longer to stand, which caused Springtrap to clench a fist against the floor. His eyes glowed briefly in empty sockets, before going back to a dim glow as he looked out the window that showed the hallway. Springtrap clenched both his own jaw and the animatronic’s hard.

The night guard...

Springtrap had expected uncertainty and fear. Hesitation and dread. Springtrap reflected briefly on the situation, and eventually decided that the attack against him had been fair, in a way. Especially when considering what it would have looked like to have a large animatronic approach a human swiftly and without any explanation.

The guard was cautious.

Good.

That meant that they may actually be competent in their job, unlike their terrible patch job of Spring Bonnie’s exterior.

The cautiousness was a problem for Springtrap, however. He wanted answers and he would only get a few attempts before the guard thought it best to not return. Springtrap would then be forced to wait until someone else came along. The only way to not have to wait around would be if he was able to get out of this place on his own, and that would prove difficult. Springtrap was still working on overriding those codes in Spring Bonnie’s programming, and those particular ones were much more intricate to break down than the free roaming programming had been.

The ventilation alarm went off, many lights in the building flashing.

Springtrap wore a grim smile beneath Spring Bonnie’s mask.

The guard would have to return to the office to do something about that alarm. 

Springtrap was positive they would be back, so all he would have to do is wait, and in the meantime, get back to his feet to be ready for the guard.

The whispers returned, louder than before.

_We won’t let you hurt them._

_We can see more clearly here._

_We aren’t fooled by your appearance._

Springtrap’s head cocked to one side, and then the other.

Was someone else there, or was he imagining things?

“Echoes...of the past.” Springtrap eventually muttered to himself. The sound of someone attempting to tiptoe caught his attention, and Springtrap raised his head to look up. Outside the long window, the guard had frozen in place as the two of them made eye contact. Springtrap lifted the hand not bracing himself against the floor to give the night guard a little wave. Springtrap let out a raspy laugh over the way the guard ducked out of sight.

Foolish.

Just because the guard was out of his line of vision didn’t mean that Springtrap forgot that there was someone there.

_Leave them alone._

”No one...will tell me what I can and cannot do.” Springtrap wheezed out, as he finally got to his feet. There was a chill in the air, but he dismissed it, and turned toward the open doorway to wait for the guard to come into the office.   


_ You can’t do anything here. _

Springtrap’s vision suddenly wavered, before blinking out briefly before it reset itself. Spring Bonnie’s animatronic’s body automatically reached out to the side to steady itself with a hand on the office desk.

_We will do everything in our power to delay you, until the others can help us._

Springtrap gave a tiny wiggle of his head, the pain bringing clarity to his vision.  


What had...what had just happened?

Springtrap held still as the ventilation alarm suddenly went silent, before he roughly turned and glanced down at the desk he had braced himself against.

The device that was used to reset the ventilation.

It was gone.

Springtrap ground the animatronic teeth together. Where had it gone? He had just seen it there not a minute ago.  So why... why was it gone without him seeing it be taken? Springtrap wondered if the animatronic had briefly shut down without his notice when the vision had blinked out.

_You will suffer._

_You won’t get away with what you did to us._

_We are a family now but you aren’t apart of it._

Springtrap bit back a curse as he sensed Spring Bonnie’s AI sputter to life briefly at the term ‘family’ and there was nothing to do but ride it out. Words were forced out of the animatronic, while the dead man within it had to wait to take back control.  


Spring Bonnie’s voice was a mixture of William’s voice and the AI, despite the damage that the animatronic’s voice box had taken from disuse and being sealed away in a dark, damp room for a long while.

“One big...happy family." Springtrap heard himself and the animatronic say as one in a mockery of a song."...but where have they...all gone?"   


The animatronic swung its head back and forth slowly as of expecting to see someone nearby.

‘ _Dead. They are all dead, but are they really gone? Could they be...like me?’_ Springtrap thought to himself, unable to prevent the animatronic’s body from taking a few steps toward the open office doorway. Spring Bonnie’s AI was still on and obviously confused in some way with its surroundings and the lack of anyone to entertain.

”There needs to be someone...to see the show.” Spring Bonnie’s AI rasped out, though it was fainter than before. “Need a birthday to celebrate...its too quiet here. They must be elsewhere.”

Springtrap wondered if Spring Bonnie’s AI understood that the silence and lack of people meant the building was more or less abandoned, apart from the night guard.

”Need to find...another room. Too quiet here.” Spring Bonnie’s AI shut down after that, finished for the time being.  


Spring Bonnie’s speech patterns had apparently been mixed with terms from the dead body inside of the animatronic.

Springtrap gave his head a little shake, careful to not jostle the metal that pierced his neck. Now that _that_ little distraction was over and done with, Springtrap would focus on the task at hand.

Track down the night guard.  Wherever they were in this building, Springtrap would find them.

"Nowhere...to hide and nowhere to...run to.No escape." Springtrap he let out an ugly laugh from within Spring Bonnie. "So familiar and yet...so different, this place. How very...interesting."

Springtrap exited the office in a slow lurch. He stood in place for only a brief moment before he went in the direction that he assumed the guard would head to.

The exit.

Was it not a flight or fight nature the night guard was experiencing? Clearly they had to have known that flesh and blood couldn’t possibly fight an animatronic with a metal endoskeleton.

’ _And a little something...more.’_ Springtrap thought to himself wryly. 

“Delaying the...inevitable.” The dead man coughed out with an amused lilt as the animatronic slowly made its way down the hall.

Being unable to actually fight off an animatronic for an extended period of time would cause the night guard to come up with a new plan. Therefore, Springtrap felt that the next logical step for the night guard would be to get out of the situation by leaving the building as fast as was possible. Springtrap’s dead lips curled beneath the mask in a sadistic-looking grin.

The night guard would find no escape.

Springtrap made certain that the guard would not be able to leave the building for many hours yet. The dead man had tampered with the door locks earlier in the day, both the entrance and the exit. Springtrap had made it so that the doors would only open at six in the morning, before locking down once more a little past midnight. 

“Try and...hide.” Springtrap peered into a room, animatronic eyes flicking over the space before withdrawing and continuing on to the next room. “I will find you.” The animatronic slowed as the head turned to one side to study the entrance. A brief flash of ire went through Springtrap.

What a shame he couldn’t just walk out.

Springtrap had considered it when he had been working on the electronic locks all those hours ago. How infuriating that he couldn’t just let himself out.

Spring Bonnie’s AI refused to get too close to the door.

Springtrap let out a weary, unnecessary sigh as he turned his head away and resumed hunting for the night guard. Springtrap knew that he had a ways to go to convince the animatronic’s AI that it could leave the building no problem. But with him trapped inside of Spring Bonnie, he didn’t dare try to hard to get too close to the doors. Springtrap didn’t want to chance being short-circuited. Springtrap also did not want to risk having his consciousness knocked out for however long it may take the animatronic to reboot its internal system.

No, Springtrap would take his time testing Spring Bonnie’s boundaries, and fight the programming every second he could find to focus on sifting through and making changes to the coding. Springtrap knew that he was making progress toward being able to move around whenever he felt like it. Surely it only be a matter of time before Springtrap could leave this building altogether.   
  
But where could he really go, trapped within an animatronic body as he was?

Of course, Springtrap didn’t really want to leave until he had more information, such as where exactly he was. Did he know the city or town, or was it unfamiliar? What year was it? Were there still Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza places around? What was the state of his body and the animatronic? He could guess from sensation but Springtrap wanted to know just how long he had been sealed in that room. It had to have been for a very long time, based off how...wrong his corpse within the animatronic felt. Springtrap figured that he could get some of the answers he wanted from the guard with some...convincing. He only needed to corner the night guard, and get them to see reason.

It wouldn’t take long to track them down and get the night guard to cooperate. If they had nothing to defend themselves with, Springtrap could manhandle them and hold them long enough to restrain them. Surely being held firmly by an animatronic rabbit would be unnerving enough for just about anyone to give Springtrap the answers he desired..

At least, Springtrap thought this was how the rest of the night would go That he would be able to catch the guard and have a little q and a. Most unfortunately, the night guard was somehow able to avoid him the rest of their shift. Because no matter how often Springtrap attempted to cut the guard off from a room, he was unable to get to them. It was almost as if the guard had been able to know exactly what room Springtrap had been in, despite not having any access to the camera system the whole time.

There were flashes, occasionally, out of the corner of his eyes that had almost resembled animatronics. But whenever he looked, Springtrap had found nothing. But he did continue to hear whispers, and the way they jeered and taunted him, too far away to properly hear all the words but hearing enough to know the whispers were being cruel and uncaring.

Not that that bothered Springtrap, but it did make it difficult at times to properly make out where the guard was over those whispers that trailed along after him at a distance.

How annoying.

Springtrap let out a long wheeze of a sigh when he heard the sound of the doors unlocking.

Oh well.

It appeared that Springtrap had failed that night but there was always tomorrow. Springtrap stopped within a doorway and carefully leaned up against the doorframe as he raised his right hand to give the night guard a small wave good-bye.

Might as well unnerve them.

The guard slipped out of the door without looking back.

Springtrap clenched both his jaw and the animatronic’s. Unfortunate that he was unable to question the guard but at the same time, this would give Springtrap some time to himself to work on Spring Bonnie’s programming. Springtrap would also give himself enough time to prepare for the night guard’s return.

It was a very long wait from morning until late evening, when Springtrap was unable to move the animatronic body any longer. But the inconvenience would be worth it in the end when Springtrap could move freely. Until then, he was patient, and once he made it to six PM, Springtrap found that he could move, and went right to the office to inspect the night guard’s setup. Springtrap looked over the electronics in the room, and studied their functions. 

The static of the monitors was a disgrace, but the cameras did show quite a few places in the building. This meant that the guard would be able to know where he was at at all times. Springtrap rummaged through the drawers of the desk, before pulling out a packet of what appeared to be orientation materials from the guard’s presumed training. The papers looked like they had been thrown haphazardly together. Springtrap paged through, taking in information about the devices.

Interesting.

It appeared that most of the electronics in the office were either vintage, or at least, not up to date with the times. Like someone had cut corners in order to meet a time frame as well as give this place a more authentic feel of the past. 

“This wouldn’t...have been allowed. Henry would have...insisted it was too dangerous.” Springtrap murmured to himself as he frowned at the ventilation system’s notes.

It was a mess, and dangerous, if it was unable to be reset. Were this ventilation system to die without being reset, it would be a fire danger for sure. With the shape the building was in, what was contained within it that was flammable, and just how many of the vent ducts were throughout the building...

This place would go up in flames and people would be hard pressed to stop it until it had all been burned down to nothing.

Springtrap took note of where there were doors that could be closed within the vent system, wondering if he could use those to his advantage. Or how the guard might use those vent doors against him. Springtrap put the materials back where he had found them in the drawer. The dead man entertained himself by thinking that someone was pulling strings from the shadows. Of someone giving a big payout to whoever had okayed this place and had believed that it was acceptable to open to the public. Not that Springtrap had the best track record when it came to the buildings he had been involved with in the past, and the way they did not remain open for long after he had...

There was suddenly a nagging at the back of Springtrap’s mind that had to do with Spring Bonnie’s exterior that dashed all current thoughts away.

It should have disturbed him how easily swayed he was from his train of thought but at the time, it did not bother him. 

Springtrap slowly exited the office and found himself automatically headed back to the storage room where he had found the tattered puerple bow. Was it his own will that led him there, or was it Spring Bonnie’s AI?

It didn’t matter.

He was soon back to rummaging around in the boxes in the storage room. Springtrap figured that he may as well follow through with that nagging he was sensing, either from himself or the animatronic he was trapped within. Springtrap produced two black buttons of an adequate size.

The dead man’s lips twitched into a sardonic smile at the sight.

Of course.

Springtrap might as well complete Spring Bonnie’s look. The vest and bow were already on, so all that remained were the buttons. Springtrap secured the buttons one after the other vertically beneath the purple bow, though it took longer than he would have liked, with his fumbling animatronic fingers and thread. But the action of sewing was…soothing, in a way. That Springtrap had found a little something to do to pass the time while he waited for the night guard to return. The focus on Spring Bonnie’s exterior allowed Springtrap to temporarily forget about the dull ache that was his dead body.

“Is it your birthday...why, there is a cake just for you...” Springtrap was the one singing softly this time, though it almost seemed as if the AI was aware and lending its words to him. “Songs and smiles are all around...one big happy family here...why don’t you stay for awhile?” Springtrap broke off as he let out an unsettling laugh that echoed in the storage room before finishing. “...there’s so much _fun_ to be had...”

A chill seemed to manifest in the room, and if he listened closely, he might have heard the way many _somethings_ appeared to have shivered at his singing.

“Come again soon, unless you don’t really want to leave.” His voice was getting stronger the longer he was aware, though there were still instances of hesitation as he worked to get his words out. Springtrap continued to hum and sing under his breath as he swayed a little. ”Come follow me, don’t be shy, if you want to experience...all that Freddy’s has to offer.” The pain Springtrap experienced since becoming aware was nothing when he focused on the memories of what had once been and what had since been lost. The many times he had suited up as Spring Bonnie and danced around, delighting the children who came to see the show. To celebrate their happiest day.

“One big happy family, always and forever.” Springtrap uttered as he capered slowly over to the mirror in the room to look at Spring Bonnie’s appearance. “Want to join in all the fun...” Springtrap grinned terribly beneath the mask. “...for all eternity?”

_Why do you sing, when you’re mocking the pain and terror you put us through?_

_None of us would want to be with you forever._

_We want to be free._

_We didn’t ask for this._

“No one...asked for your opinion.” Springtrap heard the whispers of those voices this time. The nostalgia of a time before he had died began to fade as Springtrap’s thoughts began to stray too close to his own demise for whatever reason. Perhaps it was because of the whispers of the unseen. Springtrap dismissed the unwanted memories that had begun to encroach on his mind, and left the storage room with a shake of his head. Springtrap had again forgotten the fact that the motion would drive the metal of the springlocks into his dead skin.

It hurt.

Springtrap carefully rested a hand over his neck, animatronic jaw clenched down hard. Pain was something for the living to experience, not the dead.

So why?

Why did he still experience such agony?

Springtrap leaned against a wall as the sharp pain made its way through his neck, the hand resting over the fabric twitching. He did not currently have the luxury to experience an existential crisis over being dead, and yet still remaining in this world while experiencing pain. Springtrap couldn’t stop to think about how he was unable to move on, trapped within one of his own mascot costumes that he had worn many times in the past. Questions trickled in one after another but some Springtrap would have to wait to ask. Other answers could be explained easily if only Springtrap could get the night guard to be cooperative. 

Memories began to surface again, even if many of them were scattered that Springtrap was unable to grasp. The threads of many memories were just out of his reach. Springtrap knew enough to be confident in who he was, but how he had died, apart from dying within this suit? Springtrap’s memory from right before his demise was foggy and untouchable at present, as if his subconscious didn’t want to remember.

Springtrap managed to let out a derisive snort.

Memories that were perfectly clear were the deaths of those children. But even then, there were large chunks missing from his mind, such as where the bodies had gotten to, and where Springtrap had gone after commiting the murders. 

It was like a jagged, poorly fit together puzzle that was missing the obvious pieces for a complete picture.

Perhaps if Springtrap had those he would have a better understaning of why he was still there and functioning as a corpse within an animatronic. Springtrap reminded himself that answers would come in time. Springtrap located a clock, and then slowly made his way down the hall, wheezing out a laugh over just how much it hurt to move. But he had things to do before the security guard returned, and if Springtrap wanted to finish in time, he had to get started now.

Tampering with electronics was a…hobby of his, he supposed. 

Springtrap smiled unpleasantly. Wouldn’t the guard be surprised when the cameras and the ventilation malfunctioned even more often than they had before? It had been such a long time since Springtrap had gotten to tamper with electronics, apart from those door locks he had reset yesterday.

This would be...fun.

”Come and stay awhile...we’re all family here, so come enjoy the show.” Springtrap rasped out in a vague sing-song way, getting distracted as he settled in on sabotaging the camera and ventilation systems. Springtrap’s voice suddenly became light and friendly, detached, almost, as if subconsciously masking the monster that lurked beneath Spring Bonnie’s eternal smile. “Soon you will be one of us...never going to be lonely again...now isn’t that a happy thought?”


	6. Interlude II

The abandoned Freddy’s was quiet early in the morning, until the animatronics that were left behind within its walls began to malfunction out of the blue.

The spirits that inhibited them had returned from Fazbear’s Fright, but not in the best state of mind.

Golden Freddy was sprawled out in a corner nearby, but as soon as Michael’s soul was back inside it, the costume shook. Michael noticed immediately that his friends were losing control over the animatronic bodies. As he had no way to still the animatronics himself, Michael hefted his empty costume up though sheer will alone. He swiftly glided away down a hall to find Cassidy or Charlie. Michael knew that one of them would be able to calm the others down, as Michael knew the cause of the panic, as he too felt some himself.

William Afton.

Despite being souls lurking in Fazbear’s Fright to observe the dead man, William was still able to strike fear into Michael’s friends.

And himself.

The mutters of a madman had been enough to send a chill through even a soul, all of them being reminded of just what those words entailed.

Golden Freddy twitched sporadically, reflecting the helplessness and anger Michael felt over being able to do anything to help his friends or stop William in some way. Michael let out a disembodied sigh, shoving back the anger as he kept an eye out for the marionette and Fredbear. Michael wanted to focus on the here and now, and not the past, and luckily, his search didn’t take too long. Michael brought Golden Freddy to a halt within an open doorway, waiting for the other two in the empty room to notice his presence.

Charlie and Cassidy appeared to have been speaking with one another, but both went silent when they noticed Golden Freddy hanging just above the floor inside the doorway.

”What’s wrong, Michael?” Charlie asked, turning away from Fredbear as the puppet’s hands twitched.

”I need one or both of you to help me calm everyone down.” Michael said grimly, pinpricks of light flicking in the darkened eyes of the Golden Freddy suit. “The animatronics are glitching and attempting to go through a routine while the others are trying to be in the present, and not the past.”

”What did he do?” Cassidy demanded, the light in Fredbear’s eyes brightening.

”You need to understand that Mr. Afton is unaware of us being in that other building with him.” Michael began, as he made Golden Freddy’s suit stop shaking in what was a nervous tick. “Mr. Afton thinks that he is imagining our voices but that doesn’t stop his words and actions from affecting us.”

Charlie was already floating past Michael as he finished speaking, going out into the hallway. The marionette’s features reflected worry with some effort on her part.

Fredbear followed, Cassidy’s anger and concern near-palpable, even as it was reflected in the animatronic’s features, twisting them into something unfriendly and unapproachable.

Michael eerily drifted above the floor, Golden Freddy taking the lead to show them to the main area of the restaurant. 

The animatronics had since moved on the stage from where they had started.

Freddy was holding on to Chica, who had flung her arms around him to press her face against a shoulder, as if to hide from something. Bonnie was further along the stage, the purple animatronic rabbit twitching and spasming as Foxy held onto the other’s shoulders to prevent Bonnie from walking off the stage.

”Fritz?”

Freddy’s head turned to look at Charlie, but merely gave a shake of his head as a paw patted Chica’s back reassuringly.

“What happened?” Cassidy demanded as she stomped Fredbear’s bulk up onto the stage to help Bonnie. With a light touch, she was able to stop the other animatronic from glitching out. Nodding to the grateful look Bonnie gave her, Fredbear’s head turned to take in the other animatronics. “Did he do anything to you?”

”We be sprits over there, matey. Nothin’ to harm without a body to skewer with a knife.” Foxy said as he dropped hook and metal paw from Bonnie’s shoulders. The fox animatronic gave a little shake of his head as he overrode the voice programming. “It is more what he did while we were observing that caused Susie and Gabe to leave sooner than the rest of us. I don’t think he was aware of us being there, and I hope it stays that way.”

“He was singing and dancing.” Susie said, distraught as she leaned Chica heavily against Freddy. “It was...I wasn’t expecting to see or hear that again. I couldn’t stay any longer. Needed to get away before I lost myself to those painful memories.”

”Mr. Afton didn’t seem to be fully there in the present.” Michael added, as Golden Freddy settled onto the ground, back against a table. “He attempted to corner the guard again, and when the guard left, Mr. Afton went and sewed buttons onto the Spring Bonnie suit he’s trapped inside. At first, it seemed like the animatronic’s AI was forcing him to sing, but then...” 

“He danced to a mirror and started to sing some more, with his own voice. It was...” Freddy held Chica to the front of his suit, when he sensed her animatronic body shaking. “It was chilling to see, remembering what he’d done to us. And it only got more unnerving when he kept on with it down the hall.”

”What made us return here was him laughing and talking about family.” Bonnie finally spoke, head shaking a little before stilling. Gabe’s voice overtook Bonnie’s AI programmed one. “I ran away first. It...what was being sung made me remember being lured away and...”

”It reminded all of us.” Freddy said, the eyelids of the animatronic lowering slightly over blue eyes. “Implying he had done us a favor by killing us as he did.”

”He lacks remorse.” Fredbear’s voice echoed in the room, missing the secondary tone that belonged to Cassidy. “No guilt over making us all relive the moment our lives ended, even if he is still unaware of our presence.”

“Mr. Afton said our opinions didn’t matter to him.” Michael said, glowing white dots flickering within Golden Freddy’s empty eyes. “But from the sound of it, he doesn't comprehend that we were really there.”

“He was still singing under his breath when we left.” Foxy added, inspecting his hook. “But he was doing something with the cameras, and maybe even the ventilation system.”

”But the vents are already terrible to begin with.” Chica turned her head. “What if it hurts the guard when they come back to work tomorrow?”

“Charlie and I will make certain that doesn’t happen.” Cassidy said. “At least, up to a point. And you all said before that as long as the ventilation is reset, everything would be fine.”

”That is true but only so long as Mr. Afton doesn’t block the guard from the device that is needed to reset the ventilation in that place.” Michael said, as Golden Freddy’s head ended up tilted to one side.

”Are you all going to be all right?” Charlie asked, as she floated up to the stage and hovered near each of her friends in turn. “I don’t want your animatronic bodies to be causing you trouble in addition to being around our killer in the other building.”

”I should be all right to go later tonight.” Chica said in a small tinny voice.

”No, you and Gabe will stay behind tonight.” Cassidy said, Fredbear’s head shaking once. “If you happen to freeze up instead if leaving, you may end up stuck in that other building for the day. I don’t know if William will be able to eventually see or notice us, and I’d rather you not be temporarily trapped if that happens.”

”All right.” Chica said with a soft sounding mechanical whirl that was like a sigh. She stepped back from Freddy and offered a faint smile that was able to be reflected with her beak. Yellow and white feathers bounced and fluttered over the animatronic as Chica made her way over to Bonnie. “We can help you and Charlie get this building better prepared. Keeping occupied would help keep the bad memories at bay.”

”We could use some more help around here.” Charlie said, as she held up spindly puppet hands. “I can’t do too much heavy lifting without dropping something.”

”I said I was fine with doing the bulk of the work.” Cassidy pointed out. “I think we will be ready soon, and will have to find a way to lure William here.”

Bonnie’s animatronic suit malfunctioned briefly before it was brought back under control.

”Gabe?” Charlie asked, floating back over to the purple animatronic rabbit. 

“I’ll be okay.” Bonnie’s AI voice was back. “I guess I wasn’t thinking about him actually coming to this place, instead of the other way around.”

”I would rather he stay far away, but I only know so much about how the animatronics function.” Charlie said, eying Bonnie for a moment before going back over to Fredbear. “But William learned from my father, so if anyone can reset an animatronic and allow it to go outside this building, unfortunately we that’d be him.”

”How are we supposed to get him to change the settings without sabotaging us? How are me even supposed to lure him here?” Freddy asked as he walked slowly and awkwardly down the stage stairs. Freddy’s head jerked to the side to look at Cassidy, as if a thought just occurred to him. Blue eyes briefly blanked out to white dots on a black background. “The night guard?”

”That was my plan, if only we can get the details through to the guard.” Fredbear’s voice was back to two-toned.

”Why bring someone else into a mess that doesn’t concern them?” Freddy asked, walking over to Cassidy with deliberate steps. “William almost corned the guard once. What do you think will happen if he gets to the guard and there is nowhere to run?”

”It will work out.” Cassidy said, unperturbed by how close Freddy got, nearly nose to nose with Fredbear.

“We’ll need to try and drop hints to the night guard when they return for their next shift, then.” Michael was suddenly upright and had pushed Golden Freddy between his two friends. The head turned toward Freddy. “We can keep an eye on the guard and if worse comes to worse, we can make ourselves known to Mr. Afton. That would pique his interest and likely prevent him from doing anything to the guard, and would make him attempt to get answers about our presence.”

“If things go bad, we will have to rethink things. I certainly don’t want him to see me unless there is no other option.” Freddy didn’t seem particularly happy with Michael’s words but but the animatronic bear’s eyes had gone back to their usual blue. Freddy turned away with a mechanical groan. “I need to go clear my head if I’m going back to that place tonight. Thinking about that man seeing us as sprits again makes my skin crawl.” Freddy paused. “Or whatever it is I feel within this animatronic body.”

”I’ll go with ya, matey. No sense in sailin’ alone in the darkness when you don’t hafta.” Foxy’s voice became a mix of programmed voice and spirit, as the animatronic fox swiftly left the stage to join Freddy, who merely gave a nod at the idea of company.

After a long moment, Golden Freddy’s head swiveled to the side to meet Fredbear’s softly glowing eyes.

“This all needs to be brought to an end, Cassidy, one way or another. The others are at their limit, as am I.” Michael turned the empty animatronic suit away and silently drifted off into the darkness after Freddy and Foxy.

-x-x-x-

Charlie watched Michael leave the main area of the restaurant, before she quietly directed Chica and Bonnie to the places she needed help with for setting things up. Once they were off on separate tasks to accomplish, Charlie turned to Cassidy. The marionette saw that Fredbear was standing there, as if waiting patiently for her to say something.

“That night guard won’t be able to prevent William from getting to them eventually. And I would rather he not learn about us, because, as Michael said, it would pique his interest to learn that there are more souls that remained behind.” Charlie said. “If William is adamant about cornering the guard, he can find a way to do so. And from what Michael said before, William is slowly regaining memories, which will certainly encourage him to learn more. He may even remember seeing our spirits before he was spring locked in that suit. If he does, then he will most certainly come here to find us, when he learns of our location.”  
  
“We will worry about that when the time comes.” Cassidy said, before Fredbear’s mechanical eye lids dropped in what passed for concern. “What about the guard’s...condition?” 

“The night guard’s condition is stable, for now.” Charlie said, after a moment’s pause. The puppet’s eyes narrowed as the mask reflected disapproval. “But not for long. We need to go again, in order to delay what should have already been.”

“Then let’s go right now, while the others are occupied.” Cassidy said. “I will leave Fredbear in a locked room, in case we get more visitors looking for some fun in an abandoned building.”

”The last group was driven away, wasn’t it?” Charlie quieted for a moment, before the puppet’s mask looked unhappy again. “Were there more intruders while I was in that box, unaware?”

”Nothing major for you to worry about.” Cassidy said in an evasive way. “You were already exhausted from the last batch of souls and we didn’t want to wake you...”

”As long as there aren’t any more spirits that found their way here...” Charlie began, with a tilt of the puppet’s head. “Because you’re right. I’m so tired of having to break the tie between the dead and Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza locations...”

”No, there aren’t any more, so long as we don’t have any more break-ins, have souls of William’s other victims come here, and...so long as what we discussed before is closely monitored.” Fredbear turned and headed out of the room, and headed down the hall, as the marionette floated along from behind. Fredbear settled in a corner of another room after closing the door. After a moment’s hesitation, Cassidy spoke. “I’m ready, if you are.” A pause. “I know you thought I shouldn’t have done what I did, but...trust me, this will work. I know the others are tired as well...”

Charlie was silent as she reached out with the puppet’s hand, and called Cassidy’s soul out from Fredbear. The marionette’s hand curled around the soul’s own, a small hand that was barely able to be seen. As Charlie made her way out of the old Freddy’s building, Charlie felt only sorrow over the anger and hate that radiated from within the sprit she guided along.

”Charlie?” Cassidy asked. “Is something the matter?”

”It’s nothing.” The marionette’s face had become its usual mask, giving nothing away.

”All will be fine in the end.” The girl’s spirit whispered. “I won’t let William hurt anyone else.”

Charlie still could not speak, and merely held tight to Cassidy’s hand as she guided them along a darkened side alley. If only things could soon be brought to an end...then maybe that hatred within Cassidy would be quelled. Perhaps all of the souls tied to the animatronics would finally be able to rest, as others had been able to.

The souls that remained of William Afton’s victims were trapped, for now, and they could only do what they all believed would free them, even at the cost of other people’s lives.


	7. Contact

Why the hell wouldn't he pick up?

I call and call, and still, I couldn't get a hold of my boss. Jamming my cell back into a pocket, I blew out a frustrated sigh. I figured that my boss must be deep in another Fazbear's location, like I thought before. This meant that it was highly likely that I would be on my own for my next shift without any input about the broken-down Spring Bonnie suddenly being able to move. 

Really, my boss could have warned me of the possibility.

My next decision was that I would have to be well prepared for my third night at Fazbear's Fright. I didn't doubt that Spring Bonnie might still be shambling around, and I did not want to find out what a broken-down animatronic rabbit did when they found someone.

But first...I needed to go home and attempt to get some rest before making plans to prepare before my next shift. I barely got to my bed before I managed to drop off, resting easier from the surprise that had been Spring Bonnie.

I did not hear the window open, and even if I had, I would have written it off as my tired mine playing tricks on me.

After several hours of fitful rest, I woke and stayed awake. I guess it was time to make up that list, of what I wanted to bring with me for my third night in Fazbear’s Fright. I didn’t know what Spring Bonnie wanted from me. It sure didn’t seem to act like any animatronics that I had read up on before. The thought stayed with me throughout my shopping trip, and all the way back to my small apartment.

The waving had been the worst, like Spring Bonnie knew the action bothered me.

With a heavy sigh, I was unsurprised but very disappointed that my boss still had yet to answer his calls or emails. I had thought about skipping out on work that night but I honestly didn't want to deal with complaints if I didn’t show up and was found out. And besides, I had gone out of my way to get some items from a store before my shift. I figured the mishmash of what was bought may help me last the night, in the event that Spring Bonnie was still prowling around the more or less still rather empty Fazbear’s Fright. 

I carried a heavy duffual bag as I made my way from my apartment to Fazbear's Fright on foot. I glanced around, taking in the buildings around me, and made the assumption that no one would really want to break in to the building in the first place. It wasn't like there was anything of value. Plus, I was certain there were other abandoned buildings in the area where those supposed teens could attempt to ‘make out’ in the dark. No reason to go into Fazbear's Fright, but I amused myself by thinking about how the beat-up rabbit animatronic would definitely put a damper on the mood. 

No foolish teen thinking about breaking and entering into a building for a cheap scare or clandestine meeting would want to see Spring Bonnie in such a state.

I wasn't entirely certain that I was prepared, because for whatever horrible reason, from my second shift, I felt that the animatronic rabbit had been intelligent and aware of the fact that I was in the building with it. On the other hand, how good was the AI in Spring Bonnie if it could still look for someone else in a building? Especially after the animatronic looked to have been shut away in an abandoned Freddy Fazbear location for however long it took for mold to grow on it.

Best not to think too much on it, before I started to imagine things.

With that thought in mind, I arrived at Fazbear’s fright about and hour and a half before midnight. That gave me plenty of time to do the work I intended to do, while also keeping an eye out for Spring Bonnie.

Eerily enough, the animatronic rabbit was seated on the floor in the same spot that I had first found it. 

I didn't give myself enough time to dwell on the fact that there were now two black buttons sewn into the fur beneath the bow-tie. I moved past Spring Bonnie as quickly as I could, and as soon as I was inside the office, I got straight to work.

I swiftly pulled out some metal cable from my duffel bag, and began to tie each small length of cable across the door-frame. There was a cable at ankle, knee, chest and then head height, before I attached clamps to each of them from a car jump-start, and then attached it to another cable that was plugged into the wall, which would hopefully electrify the cables.

A makeshift barrier that could be torn down with ease, but with the electricity, one I hoped would work.

I smiled at the cables.

Boom.

A makeshift electrified booby-trap. It would be a bitch if one stepped into it and I hoped that it would deter Spring Bonnie from entering the office again.

I turned to face my next problem, which was a large, open vent on the floor that led straight to my office.

A human, and more importantly, an animatronic, could easily fit inside it.

I hefted a vent grate I had found in storage on my way in, and partially latched it to the vent opening. I then shoved a chair against it, to place some leverage on it so that it does not fall in so easily. I had found no tools to screw the grate into place but if this was able to keep Spring Bonnie out of the office for my shift, great. I didn’t think that the animatronic would think to travel through the vents, but with how intelligent the AI appeared to be, I wasn’t going to be taking any chances.

If this didn’t work out as I hoped it would, I had just effectively trapped myself.

I relaxed on the ground with a few blankets and a pillow that were pilled out of my duffel bag. I propped myself up so that I could watch the monitors from the ground, with a pillow behind my head to rest against the side of the desk. I had the tablet on hand to reset the ventilation if need be, but I was hoping that things would not be like yesterday, when I saw those phantoms of the animatronics I had read about.

At least I hadn’t heard those whispers tonight.

Yet.

I let out a sigh when I caught sight of Spring Bonnie heading in the direction of my office on the static-filled monitors. 

The animatronic rabbit made as if to crouch, like it was thinking of entering into a vent.

I hastily hit a button to turn it over to the cameras in the vents, and began my frantic search for Spring Bonnie. My finger hovered over the buttons, twitching and ready to shut the door within the vent right in front of the animatronic's nose.

But where was Spring Bonnie?

I couldn’t find it on any of the cams of the vents, nor did I hear the sound of a bulky animatronic making its way through said vents. I guessed and pressed a button to close one of the vent doors, vaguely wondering if the grate against the vent opening in my office was even necessary. 

Seriously, where was Spring Bonnie?

I jumped at a clatter of metal along with what sounded suspiciously like a curse. I turned to the side in time to witness Spring Bonnie stumbling back from the electrified cables in the doorway. 

Well, at least they worked.

I watched with trepidation as Spring Bonnie sagged briefly against the wall outside the office, before it started to twitch and spasm. 

Huh.

"Guess the electrified cables were a good idea after all." I happened to mutter aloud, not expecting to get an interesting, and unnerving, reaction from the animatronic in return. 

Spring Bonnie fixed me with what seemed to be a malevolent stare, the slightly glowing green eyes going brighter for a moment before it faded back to a darker state. The animatronic slowly stepped forward and reached out as if to seize a cable.

There was no denying that Spring Bonnie made eye contact with me again.

The animatronic rabbit gripped the cable at chest height, and gave it a harsh yank. Spring Bonnie succeeded in tearing the cable out, but not without getting shocked for a longer time than before. Instead of falling backward into the wall again, Spring Bonnie collapsed fully to the ground in a crash of metal as it writhed on the floor, the animatronic's limbs twitching in a spastic way.

“I said it was electrified. What did you think was going to happen?” I didn’t expect a response, but I got one anyway.

A wheezing sound seemed to emit from Spring Bonnie at my words, before it dragged itself away on all fours. It looked to almost be in pain, but it was just an animatronic. Sure, electricity would hurt, but it was only affecting the animatronic’s motion and potentially its AI. It shouldn’t actually harm Spring Bonnie, making it crawl away as if it were actually the body of a person. 

I decided to dismiss the wheezing sound as servos acting up due to the electrical current that had gone through the animatronic. I waited until I could no longer hear Spring Bonnie, before I was able to relax a little. Resting back against the desk again with the pillow, I settled the blanket on my lap and leaned my head back to look up at the monitors. 

Not a second later, the ventilation system went offline.

The same phantom Freddy from before peered in from outside the long office window, joined by Foxy.

Inside the office, a phantom Foxy, as dilapatated as Freddy, crouched in the corner of the office.

As before, these phantoms didn't seem to mean me any harm, even if I did get a brief scare whenever they appeared. Along with that, the whispers had begun again, though I couldn't quite make them out, as when I reset the ventilation, I stopped hearing the voices.

But with each reset of the ventilation, the whispers became clearer, and almost appeared to originate from the phantom animatronics. And the now audible, if soft, whispers had become warnings.

_He’s coming._

_Watch out._

_Don't let him corner you._

I froze up when I suddenly began to hear the discomforting sound of something clambering around in the vents. 

Like Spring Bonnie was dragging itself through the vents to get to me.

Oh no.

Why hadn't I been checking the vents?

I hastily switched over to the vent cams and spotted Spring Bonnie inside of one of the vents, determinedly making its way to me, even if the animatronic seemed to have trouble dragging itself along. I could tell that there was no time for me to close the vent, which meant that I would find out whether to not the vent cover and the chair I had used would prevent the animatronic from getting into my office. I kept a careful distance from the vent as I flashed my flashlight at the entrance of the vent to peer in. I saw Spring Bonnie lift its head to make eye contact with me, kind of, before it seemed to crawl along toward the office faster. It was odd that the animatronic looked almost triumphant when it reached out to shove the vent grate away, before the triumph vanished to be replaced with what appeared to be mild irritation when it couldn’t get it open.

Thank you, leverage.

Spring Bonnie couldn’t shove the cover in, even if one hand grasped it to rattle it experimentally. The green eyes of the animatronic focused on the chair before Spring Bonnie focused on me with a slight raise of its head. The animatronic jaw opened and shut soundlessly a few times before a voice came out of it

The animatronic spoke.

It spoke in a hoarse death rattle with a distinctly British tone.

“You delay...the inevitable.” Spring Bonnie rasped out.

“What the fuck does that mean?” I demanded, relieved that I had decided to block this creepy thing from getting into my office.

“I want…answers.” Spring Bonnie wheezed, animatronic fingers gripping the grate tighter. “I need them.”

“I am going to kick my boss’ ass." I said in monotone, surprisingly calm. “He never said that the animatronic he found could talk, let alone function. I thought you would have needed to be in better condition to…function properly. You were moldy as hell, which means you shouldn't function at all, because of disuse.”

“There are…exceptions, it appears.” Spring Bonnie rasped out, a little laugh accompanying the words that ended in an almost choking sound.

“Stop.” I said bluntly. “I cannot process this level of bullshit so late at night.”

“Why is that? You are still here...for another four hours and fifteen minutes, correct? Why not pass the time...conversing?” Spring Bonnie tilted its head to the side, the half an ear twitching on the right side of the head as the left flopped at a jaunty angle. “Or do you enjoying sitting in the almost dark....alone with your own thoughts for hours on end?”

“Why don’t you go back int the room and stay there with your thoughts...if you have them, that is.” I probably shouldn't antagonize the British-sounding animatronic rabbit, but I couldn't help myself.

This was too bizarre.

“I have already spent…enough time in the dark...with my own thoughts.” Spring Bonnie’s tone changed from the light charm it had been, to a bitterness that seemed out of place, especially for an animatronic. “This place….despite its dimness, is the first light…I have had in a long time.”

I forgot about the ventilation system, and the alarm began to blare, distracting me from the animatronic. I fumbled for the tablet to reset it, seeing the phantoms reappear in the room. This time, they were not looking at me, but at Spring Bonnie.

_You should hide._

_Don’t let him near you._

Spring Bonnie began to maneuver the grate out of the way, shoving at the chair, only to be confused when it stopped its progress, as phantom Foxy and phantom Freddy somehow managed to keep the chair and grate in place, preventing Spring Bonnie from progressing any further.

_Go now._

_We can’t hold him off for long._

_We are here only in spirit._

_Our power is not very strong here._

_He will get into this office soon._

I recovered and back peddled, listening to the whispers that seemed to come from the phantom animatronics. They sounded like a bunch of kids, but I couldn’t process much more than their words to get out of the office. The phantoms didn’t seem to have another agenda, and as soon as I seized the ventilation to reset it, they were gone, and Spring Bonnie shoved the chair and vent cover aside, but had trouble getting itself upright.

Himself upright, I guess, since the voice sounded male.

I tore a cord from the doorframe, the ankle height one, with a glove that protected me from the electricity. Spring Bonnie was on his feet by then, and reaching out for me, but I ducked beneath the grasp and jammed the cord into the side of the animatronic, causing it to seize up and spasm like before.

Spring Bonnie collapsed to the ground with a frustrated hiss of servos and a fake wheeze that just had to be from the AI’s voice box.

I ducked beneath the still electrified cords at neck and knee height, and scrambled out into the hallway. I paused outside the long window and saw Spring Bonnie shove the cord away from his side, before tilting his head and staring up at me with brightly glowing eyes that were no longer green.

They were purple.

What the hell?

The flare was gone, the purple bleeding away to Spring Bonnie’s green eyes.

“We will have a talk.”

I could still hear that British-sounding voice.

“A little electricity…is merely a minor setback.” Spring Bonnie’s jaw opened up in an approximation of a grin. “Be careful or there won’t be…a happy ending for you, when I find you.”

That sounded ominous. 

I said nothing and merely made my way down the hall, thinking about my other little traps I had up my sleeve that may or may not work, because there was no denying that Spring Bonnie was far more intelligent than I initially thought. There was no way I was hanging around that animatronic long enough to have a ‘talk’ with an oddly sentient British-speaking animatronic that looked like he could kill me. If the rumors of killer animatronics from some of the closed down Freddy Fazbear’s locations from the past were to be believed.

I was not entirely surprised to find the exit of Fazbear's Fright locked again until 6AM rolled in.

Shit.

Now what?

Would I be able to keep away like I had yesterday? 

“There’s nowhere to…run to.” Spring Bonnie’s voice emitted from a vent right next to me, and I narrowly avoided having my ankle seized by an animatronic hand.

Nope.

I was finding a weapon to arm myself with and would keep this British asshole animatronic rabbit away from me. I ran down the hall, not looking back to see if Spring Bonnie would emerge from the vent, but I did hear a raspy laugh, as if Spring Bonnie found my actions ridiculous. They weren’t, because who in the hell would actually _want_ to be cornered by a large sentient animatronic?

I was going to give my boss hell for this, and would be demanding a pay-raise for this bullshit I was experiencing.

Six o'clock couldn't come soon enough.


	8. Free Roam

There were still a few hours left before the security guard could leave this building. This gave Springtrap a little time to figure out how to go about cornering them. Really, if the guard would just hold still, everything would go much more smoothly.

Was it because the guard thought Springtrap might do something to them? How much did the guard know of Freddy Fazbear’s past? Maybe that was why they were avoiding Springtrap so much? Because of the rumors, that weren’t precisely rumors but couldn’t be proved, as he had made certain of it?

Perhaps.

Right now, it was taking some time for Springtrap to be able to move again, because of being zapped with another electrical charge. Clever of the guard to set traps for him, but it only worked for a little while. The good thing that came from the inactivity was being able to work through some more coding.

Springtrap smiled humorlessly beneath Spring Bonnie’s mask.

He had finally done it.

He had broken through the programming that forced the animatronic to stay within the building. Springtrap could leave now. So if he were unable to get the guard cornered to ask them questions, then Springtrap would be able to leave the building and follow the guard home to find those answers.

Springtrap, after failing to seize the guard’s ankle, decided to keep his distance for the remainder of the night. He observed the guard carefully, but when it appeared the guard had no more tricks left up their sleeves, Springtrap decided to go after them directly, and not subtly at all. 

Heedless of the noise he made, Springtrap moved as quickly as he was able to. He gave chase to the guard through several rooms, but Springtrap had no luck cornering the guard. 

A human body was much more nimble and able to quickly dodge and duck away from a slower animatronic.

No matter how quick Springtrap made himself lumber down the hall, it was no use. It really didn’t help that Springtrap occasionally ended up stopping, twitching now and again from the electrical shock he’d received earlier.

6AM came too soon, and the guard left immediately, without looking back this time.

Too bad they hadn’t looked, as they would have witnessed the sight of Springtrap lumbering out of the building.

Springtrap was proud of his ability to override the programming and being able to get outside. As a bonus, the night guard didn’t notice the large shadow that dogged their steps the short walk from Fazbear’s Fright to what appeared to be an apartment.

Why would the guard live so near by?

A coincidence?

Springtrap lurked in the shadows of some trees across the street of the apartment. He kept an eye out for any cars that might be out this early in the morning, while the guard entered the apartment. Springtrap waited patiently there, until a light came on in a room on a ground level apartment. The room was toward the back, out of sight of the street.

Perfect.

No one would see him.

Springtrap slowly turned his head to look to either side of the street. When he confirmed that there were still no vehicles in sight, Springtrap lurched across the street. Spring Bonnie’s AI didn’t seem to like leaving the building, because there was some resistance, but Springtrap pressed through it, despite the occasionally glitching of his metal endoskeleton parts. 

Springtrap’s corpse’s lips twitched into a twisted smile of grim amusement. As much as he felt that he could easily shatter a window, it would be more imperative for him to observe through the window for a time, and see what he could glean from the guard. 

A single car that passed by looked unfamiliar, and sleeker than Springtrap was used to. Springtrap crossed the street, and once he reached the window, moved out of range of casting a shadow. Satisfied that he wouldn’t be seen for now, Springtrap peered in through the window at an odd flat screen that was attached to a wall. 

It appeared to be news of some sort. 

Springtrap’s eyes glowed a little brighter as they focused on the screen, before the animatronic blinked at the date. Springtrap didn’t know how to process what he saw.

30 years.

Springtrap had been sealed away in that room, trapped within this spring lock suit for _three_ _decades_?

Springtrap strained to hear the voice that was speaking on the screen, but it was too faint, even with animatronic hearing. The screen soon blinked out, as the guard curled up on the couch and appeared to drop right off to sleep.

Springtrap heard a rustle behind him a distance back, and went to investigate, where he found a newspaper. Springtrap glanced at the apartment before reaching down and picking the paper up. The Spring Bonnie animatronic went to go lurk beneath some trees near the back of the apartment building. Springtrap confirmed the date on the paper, and skimmed the contents of the paper without really latching onto much of the information, as he occasionally glanced up at the apartment. 

A thought struck Springtrap.

Did the guard happen to have a computer? That would yield more relevant information. It would be a bigger source of knowledge than a newspaper.

Springtrap left the newspaper on the ground. It didn’t look like it was going to rain any time soon, according to the content he did retain when paging through it. Springtrap made his way over to the guards’ apartment window, dubious over being able to get in so easily. Springtrap smiled lightly over the way the window slid up with barely an effort at his prying fingers. 

Foolish.

The window made some noise but the guard merely stretched out and flopped over before going still again. 

Springtrap got the window open as far as it would go, and found that he was just barely able to fit the bulky animatronic through the space. Luckily, the floor was carpeted, which muffled his feet hitting the floor and didn’t alert the guard. Springtrap shuffled past the couch and located a computer in another room of the small apartment.

Springtrap lowered himself onto a chair as best he could, despite it creaking under the combined weight of animatronic and corpse. Not that his corpse would weigh all that much by now. Springtrap examined the computer with its different design for a time, as well as its monitor, before attempting to figure out how to get it to turn on. Springtrap ground the animatronic teeth when he found that the computer being password locked.

Smart, if not useful for him to get the knowledge that he required at present.

Springtrap rooted around the desk, looking for some sort of clue, and instead found something much more interesting, and rather damning, about the guard. It seemed like the guard was suffering from memory loss due to some past trauma, but from the letter, an old friend had offered them a job at Fazbear’s Fright.

Springtrap glanced over the letter a second time:

_Hey, I know you weren’t happy over the idea of this gig but there’s nothing to worry about. We may not even have an animatronic, so it’s not like some serial killer is going to show up and kill the visitors. Don’t know where you heard that, but seriously, it’ll be fine._

_No serial killers here in my building. It’s probably just something from those pieces of missing memories from last month when you, you know, were outside of one of those old Fazbear places._

_Anyway, if you’re interested in the job, come by on Monday at 9 in the morning._

Springtrap set the letter aside and after a little more rummaging, found the password. Getting onto the computer brought up many unfamiliar icons that Springtrap didn’t recognize. But Springtrap selected one that was called internet. Springtrap paused at the sight of all of the information bombarding him, before he began to cycle through each one of them.

And then froze.

There were searches about serial killers who had been around in the past. Murderers and other terms were used as well. Questions about what had happened to the ones who were never caught. There were many searches on Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza and its many locations, and even some searches on Fredbear’s Family Diner, as well as questions about the apparent murders and speculation of what had happened to missing children. 

There was one search that really gave Springtrap pause.

It was one that had been about Henry Emily and William Afton. 

While Springtrap was amused to read about himself, it made him wonder what the guard knew, if anything. Was it all research for Fazbear’s Fright, where the guard worked? Or, based off the letter, was it a genuine concern of someone who may or may not know something that they shouldn’t know? From what Springtrap could tell, the guard didn’t look to be older than their late 20s, so it wouldn’t be like they knew anything relevant. They were too young to have been alive when everything happened, but then again…something didn’t seem quite right with the guard.

But what?

Springtrap typed in his own searches in the internet, pleased with how quickly the information came, even if some of it was obviously untrue, yet interesting nonetheless. It was only when the time drew closer to evening that Springtrap decided to see if the guard was still passed out. Springtrap typed into a document for a short while, animatronic fingers still struggling to work, before he heaved himself up off the chair and went out of the room.

Oddly, Springtrap found that he could not rouse the guard, so he instead decided that there was always the upcoming overnight shift. From the look of things, the guard would have no choice but to go in for work. Springtrap didn’t want to risk being seen by any passersbys, so he went to the window and got himself outside, before carefully closing the window. It was odd that it had been unlocked, now that he thought about it, when the guard had been gone from their home. 

No matter.

It worked out, as the fact that Springtrap had gotten in and out without notice was sure to give the night guard some doubts. Springtrap retrieved the newspaper from within the tree-line, before he made his way across the street to walk the short distance to Fazebar’s Fright.

The guard had had their fun.

Springtrap decided that he would finish with his tampering that evening, as he entered the building a couple minutes later. The dead man turned the anmatronic head to look around, before he found a room to start in, and crouched to seal off the vent. While Springtrap worked, he had memories of the past slowly clicking into place, except for a few important ones that still eluded him.

_Serial killer._

_Murderer._

_No matter what you are called, you did this to us._

_We won't forget._

The words followed Springtrap as he moved about the building, sealing off vents except for a few chosen ones. The voices haunted him, instilling a sense of unease, but it wasn’t because he had killed and felt guilt. It had all been carefully planned, down to the last child being lured away. The unease came because of the details that were missing. Springtrap knew that those details were important, but had yet to find out why.

"Everything will come back to me...in due time..." The dead man rasped to himself in the otherwise empty building.


	9. Deception and Capture (draft about 90% done)

I woke up in the apartment later than I had meant to. Almost instantly, I felt a sense of unease. For whatever reason, it seemed as if there was something very wrong, but from where I sat up on the couch, there didn’t seem to be anything amiss. Certainly nothing big enough to cause that weird feeling. 

“Must be imagining things.” I muttered under my breath. I didn’t need to bother changing for work, since I had fallen asleep while still dressed in uniform. I had slept hard, and as was usual as of late, I didn’t really feel all that hungry rather. I knew that my appetite had been shaky at best, ever since the almost accident outside that old Freddy Fazbear location. But I had to eat at least a little something before I left my apartment, even if the food I ate didn’t seem to sit right in my stomach.

Memory loss...

There was quite a large chunk of it missing, with only vague memories of my past coming to me in pieces.

Being in the almost accident.

Living at this apartment. 

My now boss who gave me a job, despite not having very many memories.

I rubbed and arm absently. The more I thought on it, the more I unhappy I became over remembering little to nothing.

At all.

The memories just weren’t there. All that was known was what happened after the almost accident.

What did that mean?

I went into the other room of the apartment to check something on my computer, and found that it was on. The chair seemed a bit, busted, in a way. I caught sight of a document open, and froze in place at the lines that I most certainly did not write.

_I will come find you. Leaving that sham of a pizzeria won’t deter me._

That gave me a large feeling of dread, which had me checking the entire apartment for any trace of Spring Bonnie. 

There was no animatronic present.

I went back into the room and stared at the loop too screen again.

How?

How had those words gotten on the screen if no one was in the apartment apart from me? I couldn’t find any way the animatronic could have gotten into my apartment. I hesitantly sat down, wondering if I ought to do some more research on Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza locations.

I left the document with the unfamiliar words alone, and opened up a browser. Instead of searching more, I checked my email and found that my boss had finally emailed me back. I opened up an email with attachments and scanned through it. Apparently, there were vintiage audio recordings for me to listen to when I went into work. I really didn’t want to listen to them and be distracted at work with Spring Bonnie lurking, so I decided that I would listen to the audio clips that had been attached to the email before I went into work today.

The voices were oddly garbled at times, but from what I could discern, they were training tapes for using spring lock suits. I shuddered over the thought of getting into a costume with metal being held back that could stab right back into you at any moment if you weren’t careful. There was one other audio file, and then an odd looking one that wasn’t labeled as the others were. I listened to the last file, one that talked about a suit being moved. 

A golden suit. 

I felt a little uneasy, thinking about Spring Bonnie, but dismissed it as I clicked on one final audio file that was smaller than the other file sizes, and seemed…out of place with how it was labeled compared to the others.

The voice that began to speak sounded oddly familiar, as it was almost like Spring Bonnie’s voice. The voice’s tone was British, which only made me believe more that it was Spring Bonnie’s voice...but something was off. The voice...it sounded more…human, and afraid. Upset and in denial.

_’...back. Stay back. You are all dead. None of you should be here. You should all be gone. Dead.’_

Whispers began, soon overlapping the audio of British one, who soon became panicked. 

There was the sound of hurried footsteps.

The whispers grew louder, causing the audio to distort with static.

I became lightheaded as the voices trailed off, leaving only the sound of frantic breaths and the sound of someone fumbling with something mechanical sounding. Was that a crank? There was a sound of more fumbling before there was a triumphant laugh. The laugh was followed by a brief silence before something snapped repeatedly and a horrendous scream rang out.

Was I...was I hearing someone dying? and what was that snapping sound?

...Spring lock suit. 

The other audio files had mentioned the spring lock suits that could be worn, how one was missing, and now this...this audio file that seemed unplanned, and raw with what had happened within it.

I ended up getting up from the chair but swayed and collapsed as an unfamiliar, rather young sounding voice, from far away, spoke to me.

There were several of them, and it was almost like an echo as the voices whispered to me.

_He came back._

_He always does, without fail._

_You can’t._

_You won’t._

I was having trouble fighting for consciousness. It felt like I was drowning.

_Be careful, she will help you, but only for so long._

I collapsed the rest of the way to the floor, but as I lie there with my eyes closed, there was a light touch on my neck. Another firm bush of fingers came from a small hand that didn’t seem quite normal but its touch left a warmth behind. The dizziness began to fade away as I slowly regained my ability to move. I no longer felt like I was going to pass out, even if I did feel a little shaken by what had just happened.

What was going on?

Whose voices did those whispers belong to, and why was I hearing them so much more, after being outside of that old Freddy’s location, and Fazbear’s Fright? I checked on the computer screen again, and saw that the email from my boss, along with the attachments, were missing. But the document was open again, and a few words were there that had not been there before, below the other lines from before.

_Free us from him._

_Come find us._

_She will help you..._

_...If you listen to our voices._

It was going to be a long day, and I wasn’t looking forward to coming face to face with Spring Bonnie this early in the morning. I glanced back at the computer, and saw that more had been typed without my notice. It was more unnerving than the other words.

_A man became a monster beneath the smiling mask._

What was this?

Was I in a horror movie now?

I was upset that I couldn’t get a hold of my boss about all of this apart from that one email he had sent me. But one thing was certain. I would go to work two more days, and then I was gone.

There wasn’t enough monetary compensation for me to deal with the shit that I had been experiencing.

It was like anything to do with Freddy Fazbear’s was a curse.

-x-x-x-

Springtrap waited as he was used to as of late. Servos whirred to life as he heard the guard arrive. But if Springtrap thought that he had fully freed himelf of the animatronic’s programming, he would soon be proven wrong. As soon as Springtrap made his way to the office to directly confront the guard, a young voice echoed from another room.

 _Hello_?

Springtrap paused mid-step, struggling to suddenly hang on to control of the animatronic body.

It was just a trick.

A distraction.

But it was one that Springtrap found he couldn’t resist, as Spring Bonnie automatically went to where it though there were childen to entertain. An echo of excitement programmed in to preform for children drifted through him from the suit’s AI to his own mind.

Springtrap ground his dead jaw down against the few teeth that were left in his mouth.

This was not something he had foreseen being a problem.

Springtrap struggled to ignore the call, but found his body being forced around step by step.

Spring Bonnie’s AI may have been mostly down, but it was strong from the sound of a child’s voice enough so that it went against Springtrap’s desires in order to go investigate the room the voice had come from.

As expected, there was no one in the room.

Springtrap had no time to go against the programming as he clenched a fist when a laugh suddenly sounded several rooms away.

No.

This was not going well.

Cursing himself for the detail he had agreed to with these damn spring lock suits, Springtrap felt himself unwilling move along the hall in a slow shamble. He supposed that at the time, it hadn’t been a concern to make certain that the animatronic would function without a human inside of it, making decisions based of programming. No one could have possibly guessed that an animatronic would work even when there was a human body trapped wthin it.

Another empty room.

Both jaws clenched as Springtrap heard the childish voice call from the room he had just been in.

 _Hello_?

Again, Springtrap went, helpess to override this particular order embedded within the animatronic. Springtrap recalled reading a hand written manuel about audio cues, but had just assumed that because it hadn’t been used the past three nights, that the guard wouldn’t think of using it.

Until tonight, apparently.

The guard had apparently decided to play on the safe side and not take any chances that didn’t need to be taken.

When silence reighed, Springtrap was able to regain control of the animatronic suit, and made his way in the direction of the office as swiftly as he was able to. Springtrap was uncertain when the audio cues would sound again. The ventilation malfunctioning at this point in time would hopefully give him enough time to reach the office. Springtrap made his way slowly to the long window that showed the inside of the office, and made brief eye contact with the guard.

The guard looked at a screen, then looked at him.

Springtrap resumed moving along the hall, hand to the window as he continued to eye the guard.

Most unfortunately, the guard moved over to another of the monitors, and pressed something.

 _Hello_?

The audio cue had gone off again in the distance.

Springtrap made eye contact with the night guard again, even as his body turned unwillingly away as Spring Bonnie headed back the way he had come from. Springtrap let out a wheeze of laughter.

They knew.

The guard knew what the audio cue could do, and appeard to be leading him around this godforsaken place with a simple childish audio playing over some speakers.

Simple yet effective. 

Springtrap came to a halt in yet another empty room, before the audio played in the next room. 

It seemed that he would be hard presed to corner the guad tonight.

Springtrap decided that he would have to follow the guard home again, and wait for them to wake from their slumber this time around.

_Hello?_

It was going to be a long six hours.

-x-x-x-

I knew that I should have listened to instructions and read up carefully on the various devices in the office. I used the audio cues to get Spring Bonnie to move from room to toom, having to reset the device now and again on a tablet.

The ventilation, however, continued to be a bitch.

Several times the broken yet still functional Spring Bonnie almost made its way into his office. Added to this, I began seeing visions of other animatronics in broken down states, which made it neartly impossible to keep track of everything, even if the phantoms never attacked me and merely seemed to want to keep me company.

I got to 6 am despite this all, and used the exit instead of the entrance, where I had led Spring Bonnie to for the last time, and could already hear the steadily approaching footsteps.

_Time to go._

I agreed with that whisper.

Only one hellish night was left, and I would be done with this place. My boss could find someone else to deal with weirdly sentient animatronics.

I went home feeling wired, which meant that I was unlikely to be able to sleep deeply any time soon, but I knew that I would have to, eventually, if I wanted to keep my wits about me for my last shit.

I began to doze off after some browsing on the internet. I was feeling more certain than ever that there was something not quite right with Spring Bonnie.

I became alert almost immediately when I heard scraping sounds, and was about to leave the room when Spring Bonnie was suddenly there in the doorway, looming over me. I slammed the door shut immediately and wedged it closed under the doorknob with the computer chair to try and buy myself some time. 

Since when could animatronics leave a building? 

I shoved my laptop into a case and took it with me into the closet. I closed it carefully, and waited to go through a small door in the back of the closet, where it would take me into the living room. 

Banging sounds rang out, indicating that Spring Bonnie was attempting to get into the room.

I slipped through the small door in the closet to get into the living room, swiftly grabbed a few things. From the slamming of the office door, Spring Bonnie should be occupied long enough to...

An angry screech of both animatronic and human rang out.

Spring Bonnie somehow knew I was no longer in the room. would bust in. 

I narrowly got my ass out of the window as Spring Bonnie rushed me. I cussed as the Rabbit animatronic gave chase, even if it took Spring Bonnie longer to get out of the window with its bulk.

There was only one place that I could get to where I could could outrun the animatronic.

Fazbear’s Fright.

I got into the building and went into a vent, thinking that I could wait Spring Bonnie out. I heard an ominous crash in another room, and backtracked through the vents, and found that the vent I had just climbed into was now sealed off.

How did…how did Spring Bonnie know to do that?

I went only one of two ways left for me to go, and had a sinking feeling when I saw that the next vent opening was also sealed by a grate. Worse, Spring Bonnie was crouched there, and I watched as the animatronic gave me a little wave.

“Enough of your running.” Spring Bonnie said. “I believe it is time to have that chat.”

Fuck _that._

I immediately went back the way I had come, and found it unnerving that Spring Bonnie merely rose, unconcerned, and walked off. I made my way in the other direction that I hadn’t gone yet, only to be met with the leering visage of Spring Bonnie as he entered the vent.

Shit.

That was terrifying.

I scrambled backward, thinking that I would just kick one of the vent covers with enough force to get out. If not, I would resort to kicking the animatronic and see if it would shut it down, even if I would likely just harm my foot in in the process.

Behind me, I heard a wheezing, disgruntled sigh.

I returned to the blocked vent entrance, and kicked it. At some point during kicking the metal that wasn’t moving, the ventilation went out, and the alarm began to go off.

Freddy and Bonnie appeard on the other side of the vent, though as phantoms, they were unable to remove the grate cover. Foxy joined them, even trying to get its hook around the grate cover to pull. The hook just went through the metal.

I ended up on my side, realizing at some point that I had collapsed.

The ventilation...

I stubbornly reached up to grasp the grate, the lack of oxygen fucking with my mind and body.

It was odd that the phantoms seemed to be visibly upset with how I was trapped. Distraught over the way that Spring Bonie was presumably gaining on me.

I didn’t look back.

I didn’t need to, as I could hear the animatronic and his wheezing breaths. What I did feel was one of Spring Bonnie’s hands closing around one of my anksle. I lost my grip on the grate, unable to resist being tugged backwad. It was a disconcerting senation, being vaguely aware that a large animatronic rabbit was dragging me backward. I was being taken away from escape.

The animatronic phantoms drifted into the vent after me, as if to keep me company. There were whispers that I could t hear as the lack of oxygen was getting to me.

But really…why were they so worried, and why did only Freddy remain, while the others vanished from view?

I finally let my eyes close as I slipped toward unconsciousness. I didn’t want to think about what Spring Bonnie was going to do now that he had me cornered at last.

I was done.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been reworking the draft of the fic a little, and with how low my motivation for editing this fic is, it’s hard to do much more than drafts (ch 9, this ch, was already mostly written out).
> 
> Writing out drafts are pretty quick for me. It is just motivation to work them into normal readable chapters that is the problem at the moment. I may be posting drafts more often until I get that motivation back to edit.


End file.
